Rich Franklin disappears!

October 2, 2007 – 6:00 pm by fightlinker

With the 1001 responsibilities that come from being Randy Couture, I’m always amazed that the Natural has the time to train for his own fights. Between his gym, his clothing line, his massive roster of fighters, and god knows what else, you’d think he’d be distracted a bit. Fortunately for him, he’s got a good woman behind him who’s acted as his business manager. And unlike his last wife who just distracted him and fucked his shit up, his new wife frees him up so he’s able to train the way he needs to and do what he’s got to do to keep the heavyweight belt around his waist.

Not everyone is as lucky as Randy Couture. Rich Franklin is still pretty lucky … his wife is a hottie and seems to be okay with the whole ‘fighting’ thing. But that’s not quite enough when you’re getting ready to fight a guy who smashed your fucking face in the last time you met. So rather than take the Randy Couture approach, Rich Franklin is taking the Rocky 4 approach : going off into the wilderness to focus on training.

“(Public Relations Work) It takes away from your family and all that kind of stuff and builds distractions into your training. Knowing that if I have some PR work to do this evening when I’m done training, I have to come into the gym, get my stuff done and I can’t go home and rest for the remainder of the evening and plan for tomorrow’s training. I have to worry about what PR is on the agenda.”

“That’s why I’m leaving town. It’s not going to be tough at all, because I won’t be here.”

“I’ve obviously never had this kind of exposure locally. This is insane. As for the sport, I don’t know. I think this is one of those fights that could possibly make me a hall of famer or not within the UFC.”

Franklin will set up camp at an undisclosed Western location. His travelling party will include three coaches and three training companions, including Jorge Gurgel, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who has been alongside Franklin throughout his career.

I was criticizing Rich earlier for all his side projects and business ventures … I honestly didn’t think he was giving his fight with Silva the attention it deserved in order for him to win. But now I’m not so sure. Will isolating himself help him regain focus? Leaving your cell phone behind will keep you from hearing it ring, but can Rich stop thinking and worrying about all his shit? Plus you’d imagine there are disadvantages to such a small training team.

Regardless, I’m glad to hear he’s taking extra steps to keep from being distracted.