Franklin's Window of Opportunity

Rich Franklin hears the sand running through the hour glass. The window of opportunity remains cracked for the soon-to-be 35-year-old former UFC middleweight champion, though he understands no one, save for Randy Couture, can slow time’s relentless crawl.

“I don’t think I’ll be fighting when I’m 44 or 45, but I feel good when I wake up in the morning,” Franklin said. “Physically, I can continue to fight for a while.”

Franklin will return to the cage this Saturday when he meets the rejuvenated Vitor Belfort in the UFC 103 “Franklin vs. Belfort” main event at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The Cincinnati native spent 16 months of his career with UFC gold fastened around his waist but unfinished Octagon business lingers.

“I can’t say I’ve accomplished everything I want to accomplish,” Franklin said. “If I had, I’d quit fighting. I still have a thirst for competition. I guess that’s why I haven’t retired.”

Another title run, should it materialize, will likely come as a light heavyweight. Two decisive defeats to 185-pound juggernaut and pound-for-pound thoroughbred Anderson Silva knocked Franklin’s career of its axis. His transition to 205 pounds, however, has been slow to develop, with catchweight superfights against Wanderlei Silva and now Belfort providing meaningful interruption.

“Ever since I lost the title, it’s been one fight at a time,” Franklin said. “This fight, like my last fight, is at 195 pounds. If the UFC has exciting fights at 195, I’m willing to drop to do what I need to do, but I guess there are times when I feel like I don’t have a home.”

Belfort provides a wealth of challenges. Blessed with as much physical ability as anyone in the sport, the former UFC light heavyweight champion rides an impressive four-fight winning streak into his first Octagon appearance in more than four years. He re-enters the UFC cage on the heels of one of his most impressive performances -- a violent 37-second knockout of 2000 Olympic silver medalist Matt Lindland.

“He’s an MMA legend,” Franklin said. “Everyone knows that Vitor’s hands are real fast and he’s a good athlete, but as Vitor has aged, he fights with a lot more intelligence and has become more well-rounded.”

In advance of his catchweight showdown with Belfort, Franklin invited former EliteXC middleweight titleholder Robbie Lawler to his training camp. A southpaw with brutal knockout power, Lawler mimicked the Brazilian during the month the two men spent together.

“I brought in Robbie Lawler to help me get ready,” Franklin said. “He’s another good southpaw, a good wrestler and fights a lot like Vitor.”

Franklin, who has headlined eight UFC events during his illustrious career, also maintained a training camp away from his Cincinnati base, as MMA mastermind Matt Hume sharpened his skills and balanced his attack at AMC Kickboxing and Pankration in Seattle.

“Matt is the first MMA coach I’ve ever had,” Franklin said. “He’s taught me how to transition things. I have a great set of coaches here in Cincinnati, but this is the first time I’ve ever had a coach who focuses on MMA, and my transitions have started to tie together better.”

Though Franklin spent four years as a math teacher -- he taught “all grades” and “everything but calculus” -- at Oak Hills High School in Cincinnati, he has no plans to return to the classroom once time runs out on his mixed martial arts career. The master’s degree in education and bachelor’s degree in mathematics he earned at the University of Cincinnati serve as mere reminders of the life he once led.

“I don’t think I could go back in the classroom and be a regular math teacher,” Franklin said. “I’m not sure I could mix with a classroom, and I can’t imagine myself sitting at home on a Friday night grading papers.”

Even now, years removed from the chalkboard, Franklin maintains contact with some of his former students, many of whom have moved on to successful careers of their own. Fame and fortune, it seems, have not clouded his perspective.

“I have a couple students who have stayed in touch with me,” he said. “I’ve had a few students ask me if I could help with some autographs. I had a former student contact me recently, in fact, and this was a kid who was definitely not one of my best math students. Now he’s in charge of people’s finances. I told him to stop by after training and we’d go out to lunch and catch up.”

With high-profile victories against Wanderlei Silva, Yushin Okami, UFC hall of famer Ken Shamrock and the late Evan Tanner already behind him, Franklin welcomes talk of another crack at the first man to defeat him -- current UFC light heavyweight king Lyoto Machida.

“I’d fight him if the UFC thought it was an interesting fight,” Franklin said. “It’d be a tough fight.”

Machida was just three bouts into his professional mixed martial arts career when the Shotokan karate master stopped Franklin on first-round strikes in Japan on New Year’s Eve in 2003. Finished by a head kick and follow-up punches, Franklin realized he had encountered someone with great promise.

“I knew after fighting him that he was someone who would one day be a champion,” he said. “He conducted himself like a seasoned athlete. I made a lot of mistakes in my camp. I had not lost a fight at that point in my career, and losing was not a possibility. It was his third fight, and it was my 12th. Yeah, I knew this was definitely someone who was going to be around for a while.”

Even though Anderson Silva’s dramatic 2006 arrival in the UFC marked the end of his reign as middleweight champion, Franklin claims he has never paused to consider where his career might have gone without the Brazilian sweeping through it.

“It’d be like saying I kept the belt by default,” he said. “I’d hate to look back and think I didn’t test myself against the best fighters.”

After his bid to recapture the middleweight belt from Silva failed, Franklin altered his priorities. As a fighter who can see himself retired “at 36 or 37,” he seems comfortable in his own skin and with his place in history.

“I think it’d be a great Cinderella story for me to end my career as a champion,” Franklin said, “but if I go the rest of my career without becoming champion again, I think I’d be OK with that.”