Unlike many fighters, Rich Franklin seemingly ended his professional fighting career and never looked back.
Even though the former UFC champion and current UFC Hall of Famer never made a comeback to MMA after hanging up his gloves, Franklin admits it wasn’t an easy transition to make. Franklin officially retired in the fall of 2015 with his last fight being in late 2012 – a knockout loss to Cung Lee in the main event of UFC on Fuel TV 6 in Macau.
“Theres a couple of things in play here,” Franklin recently told MMA Junkie Radio. “First of all, as an athlete, that is my first love. As a young boy, I dreamt of becoming a professional athlete, and I was able to fulfill that dream. When you get to an age where you can’t compete at a top level anymore, at least consistently at a top level, you have to look at doing something else and you have to remember that second thing you’re doing at the time is not your first draft pick, so to speak. It’s your second love, and that’s a difficult adjustment at first for a lot of people. Fortunately for me, I was able to secure a good career in the industry working for ONE Championship.”
Franklin has been serving as vice president for ONE Championship for several years now.
On top of being an ambassador for the promotion, Franklin is also in change of the company’s Warrior Series, which is a set of events that host cards in different parts of the world in search of up-and-coming talent for the major ONE Championship events.
“Ace” said his work at ONE Championship has helped him replace his passion for getting in the cage.
“Within the umbrella of ONE Championship, we created the Warrior Series, and I run that project,” Franklin explained. “I’m the CEO of that particular company here in Singapore, so the good thing about that is that I pretty much have full creative control of what I want to do, where I want to go, the athletes we’re recruiting, the card that I put together with my matchmakers, and I work extensively with my team.
“The way that I run my team, it’s kind of like the knights at the round table because I believe everyone has something to contribute on the team, and it’s been a beautiful thing because I’ve taken that product specifically and treated it like my martial arts career. Every day, I sit there and think of how can I make the content that I’m putting out better, how can I be a better host for a travel show, and I treat it all the same. It’s the refinement process that I really I guess miss about competition, so I apply that to my role as an executive, and that’s what really keeps me motivated.
“So initially the transition was difficult, but once you take a look at something at a different angle and take the same approach with something else, it almost in a different kind of way feeds those competitive juices that I felt as an athlete.”
It’s getting close to a decade since Franklin was last seen in action, meaning there’s quite a few newcomers to the sport that don’t remember his time on top. It’s a measure the former UFC champ uses to distinguish the hardcore MMA fans.
“I think when you run into fans, the reality is that I haven’t competed live in a numbers of years now, so when I run into somebody that actually recognizes me, I’m like, ‘OK, you’re a true fan to recognize me seven or eight years after having competed,’” Franklin said.
Check out the full interview with Franklin in the video below.
Rich Franklin opens up about life after fighting: 'That's a difficult adjustment'
