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No Phelps diet for Franklin as former MA champ looks to pack on the pounds |
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Written by Neil Davidson, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Thursday, 04 September 2008 |
Ultimate fighter Rich Franklin. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/David Kohl
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ATLANTA - A former math teacher, Rich Franklin did his homework before agreeing to return to the UFC's light-heavyweight division. That included checking out Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps' diet.
Asked to relocate from the middleweight ranks after two losses to champion Anderson Silva, Franklin (25-3) wanted to know if his body could handle the move to 205 from 185 pounds after fighting there so long. Going into Saturday's mixed martial arts bout with Matt (The Hammer) Hamill at UFC 88 (available on pay-per-view), the answer so far has been a qualified yes.
The 33-year-old Franklin, whose body during training camp really is a temple, changed his eating habits and started to put on some pounds. But once he started preparing for Hamill, "I had a hard time keeping it on, let alone trying to gain it.
"When you're training two times a day and putting in five, six hours at the gym, it's difficult to make sure you're eating more calories than you're burning."
With Phelps drawing headlines around the world for his performance in the Olympic pool and his diet of 12,000 calories a day, Franklin was naturally curious. So he started doing some research on a daily menu so dripping with calories that it would cover six men Phelps' age.
Franklin quickly concluded that fried egg sandwiches, chocolate-chip pancakes, French toast, ham and cheese sandwiches and pizza were not for him.
"I don't eat that way. I put clean fuel into my system," Franklin said. "For me to consume, say, 5,000, 6,000 calories a day, it's a difficult thing to do when you're eating oatmeal or brown rice and lean proteins like salmon and grilled chicken and all that kind of stuff. That makes it much more difficult to put all those extra calories in your system."
Franklin expects to weigh 210 on fight night. That's five pounds above Friday's weigh-in limit (six if you include the one pound buffer the UFC grants on non-title fights) but it will no doubt be less than Hamill. Light-heavyweights routinely cut 20 pounds for fights.
Franklin expects to pack on a few more pounds of muscle each time out but at least now doesn't really have to worry about cutting weight, which he acknowledges used to be a "big stresser."
Still a new weight class - even if Franklin fought as a light-heavyweight earlier in his career - means new issues and problems. And for a fighter like Franklin, who thinks everything through, that means that being detached from the familiar and routine.
But it was time for a change.
Franklin ruled the 185-pound roost, until the arrival of Silva - widely viewed today as the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter on the planet. Franklin took the title away from Evan Tanner at UFC 53 in June 2005 and defended it against Nate Quarry and Montreal's David Loiseau before running into a Brazilian buzzsaw named Silva at UFC 64 in October 2006.
Franklin bounced back to beat Jason MacDonald of Red Deer, Alta., and Japan's Yushin Okami before losing a rematch with Silva at UFC 77 in October 2007 in his native Cincinnati.
Silva aside, Franklin is 10-0 in the UFC. The only other man to best Franklin is unbeaten Brazilian Lyoto Machida, who won by TKO outside the UFC in 2003. Now that Franklin is back at 205 pounds, he could face a rematch with Machida in the UFC.
The UFC approached Franklin about moving to light-heavyweight after the second Silva loss.
"The UFC said that they really weren't interested in me fighting Silva again and, with that said, they don't want me sitting there fighting top contenders because I eliminate possible title fights if I win, which leaves me in the position where basically I can only fight guys on the back end of fighting Silva, like losing their title shot to him," he explained. "And it just leaves me in a position where I don't have a whole lot to aim for other than one fight.
"I always think my career is one fight at a time but at least here if I'm back at 205, while Anderson's the title-holder at 185 and the UFC doesn't really want to see me fight him again, it gives me something to aim for."
For the record, Franklin thinks he can beat Silva and says the addition of coach Matt Hume has upped his game. But he is realistic.
"You know there might be a lot of people out there that would argue that I still have the best opportunity of taking the belt from him. But I'd say there's enough people out there that if you were to put Franklin-Silva 3 on a card, they'd be a lot of people out there that'd be like 'Ah, I've seen it twice already and the same thing's going to happen."'
Hume, who has drawn Franklin to Seattle to train, is a master strategist who is able to dissect other fighters, according to Franklin.
Hamill, 31, should be easy to read. An elite wrestler who is deaf, he was featured prominently on "The Ultimate Fighter" reality TV show.
"We all know his wrestling skills but I think he's just brute strong and he's heavy-handed," Franklin said. "And although maybe his standup skills aren't refined, that doesn't mean he's not dangerous on his feet. He's got a heck of a chin and he hits hard. That makes him somebody dangerous when they're coming at you."
Hamill is 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the UFC, with many observers saying he did not deserve to lose a decision to Michael Bisping at UFC 75. After sorting out some injuries, he bounced back with an impressive victory over Tim (The Barbarian) Boetch in April.
Franklin and Hamill are friends and have trained together. But Franklin had already turned down one 205-pound matchup, explaining to the UFC that the possible opponent had helped him train for his last fight. Not wanting to turn another bout down, he said he would take the Hamill fight if the Hamill camp agreed, which it did.
Franklin is coming off a win over Travis Lutter at UFC 83 in April in Montreal, where he was one of the few non-Canadian fighters not to be booed. He returned the favour in the cage that night, complimenting the Canadian fans.
The former champion is as thoughtful as one might expect of a former teacher with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and master's degree in education from the University of Cincinnati.
He has his own American Fighter clothing line (www.damagewear.com), and has done TV pilots for an "American Fighter" show highlighting ordinary people who have overcome extraordinary odds.
After this fight, he is scheduled to visit U.S. troops in the Middle East for a second time. Memories of a recent visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., still reverberate within him.
"You walk into this hospital room and these guys are so excited to see you, probably more excited than they've been their whole stay there," Franklin recalls. "And they're so grateful that you could just walk in and spend 10 or 15 minutes in their room, just bullcrapping about life in general because that's what they miss out on. And when they look at you and they're like 'Thank you,' and it's like 'Man I gave up 15 minutes of my life to come in here and say thank you to you for giving up a leg, for the service you do for my country."'
Franklin, who has also visited wounded soldier at Fort Lejeune in North Carolina, calls the experience "life-changing." For him, it goes beyond politics or slogans of support your troops.
"When you're actually there and you're kind of living it and seeing what they go through and everything, you have a much deeper appreciation for what's really going on. Whether you agree with the military activity or not, the fact of the matter is you have young kids who are being sent all over the world to do this kind of stuff. Maybe they agree with being there and maybe they don't, to each his own to have their own beliefs and stuff.
"But regardless of the fact, they're there and that's their job. And part of the reason why they're there is for you. So even if you don't support the cause, you have to show the appreciation to the individuals of the cause."
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