Former UFC champion Rich “Ace” Franklin (28-6, 1NC) is coming off a loss to another former title holder Forrest Griffin at UFC 126 last February. The former 185 pound champion has a long way to go to build another run at a title shot having traded wins for losses over his last six bouts.
Now that he’s 36 years old, he’s starting to feel his age and with the new up and coming fighters, like recently crowned light heavyweight champ Jon Jones, he knows that climbing the mountain back to UFC gold will certainly be harder than when he started in the sport.
Franklin talked to Tapology.com about the young fighters coming into the UFC who have grown up learning the sport of mixed martial arts and his future within the sport.
“I knew that about Jon Jones the first time I saw him fight. With that said, it’s going to get more and more difficult to compete at the highest levels. It’s like any sport; if you take boxers from the 1920s and put them in the ring today or football players from the 1950s and put them in the game today, you just know how it’s going to go.
“There will be a day when things will be different in MMA. Jones has seen MMA his entire life. The first UFC for me was when I was 17 or 18 years old, so if I were able to train since I was eight instead of 18, what kind of athlete would I be? And the answer is, you’re seeing what I would have been in the form of these new athletes like Jones.”