Former middleweight UFC champion Rich Franklin says he would consider fighting again, under the right circumstances.
Franklin, 47, (29-7 MMA) has not entered the Octagon since November of 2012 where he went down to defeat against Cung Le (9-3 MMA) in a middleweight bout.
‘Ace’ officially retired in the fall of 2015. Franklin has stayed active in the MMA world and is currently the Vice President of Asian mixed martial arts company ‘ONE Championship’.
During a sit down interview with Chael Sonnen, the former world champion, Rich Franklin, admitted he still has a desire to compete in the cage (h/t Sportskeeda):
“I look at old videos of myself and I’ll be watching TV, it feels like I’m watching somebody else. It was a different lifetime, and sometimes I scratch my head like ‘Why do people do this?’ Make no mistake about it, under the right circumstances I would probably be like ‘Yeah I got a couple more left in the tank.”
Although Franklin didn’t outline what the ‘right circumstances’ would be for him to get back in competition, even the potential of a return would inevitably get his fans excited.
“You know the transition from fighter to executive was weird. I don’t know about you but when I first started working for ONE it took me probably a year and a half of going into the arena and not feeling I was there for a fight.”
Concluding, Rich Franklin said:
“I’m sitting there the whole time, my stomach, everything was going. I hated the feeling, it took me a while and then I finally got to the point that (I said) ‘I’m not on tonight. I’m just here to enjoy and watch.”
It lends itself to the tag line – once a fighter, always a fighter.
I like Rich. I hope he stays retired.
He should come back & fight a hungry up & comer that’s on a tear.
Seniors league for over 40s, 3 minute rounds.
I know Rich and love the guy, but no thanks.
Jerk lol
It would be interesting
Rich is smarter than most and I was going to say this could be interesting until I saw his age… 47 yikes. It would probably would have to be against another senior
I always liked Rich. I always wanted to see him and Chuck fight and even though they finally did and he ko him I still wish they could have fought years before that in their primes.
I swear to God. Rich Franklin had someone punch him in the eye before every single fight. I followed his entire career and every fight and I swear he had a black eye going into every single fight 
That’s funny lol his wife must hit hard…
Yea, definitely would raw dog. Good on Richy
Smokin