Former UFC middleweight champion Rich ‘Ace’ Franklin (28-6, 1NC) has recovered from shoulder surgery and is set to return to the Octagon this summer against former Strikeforce title holder Cung Le.
The two are expected to meet at UFC 148, which is scheduled for July 7, 2012 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The bout marks Franklin’s return to the UFC’s middleweight division after competing at light heavyweight and 195-lbs catchweight bouts. ‘Ace’ last fought at 185-lbs in April 2008, earning a second round TKO win over Travis Lutter.
In an interview on Thursday on “The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo”, Franklin talked about moving back to middleweight and his plan to get back down to 185-lbs, feeling that is a more comfortable weight for him than competing at 205-lbs.
“I never 100% loved being at 205, anyways,” Franklin told Mauro Ranallo on The MMA Show, “but I was in a position where I was stuck at 185 since the UFC didn’t want to do a third Anderson Silva fight. It put me in a gatekeeper position at 185 and it wasn’t attractive at the time so I moved to 205.”
“I’ve been at 205 for a while now and the guys are big,” the native of Cincinnati, Ohio said. “I’ve tried to put on weight but, even still, frame-wise I’m much smaller than most of the guys at 205. Take a look at the face-off picture with Forrest and I and you can see how much bigger he is than me. It’s a big factor to deal with. You could get away with it 10 or 15 years ago but now everyone is so technical so you have to have every advantage you can get.”
“We talked to the UFC about moving to 185 and they were interested so we said, ‘OK, let’s give it a go,” the veteran with a 28-6 record said. “Since I’m older I’m already tracking what I’m eating and the approach I’m taking to the weight cut so I can do it systematically so it won’t be that rough during fight week. I’ve been here at 185 before so I don’t think making weight is going to be a problem at all.”
Also featured on Thursday’s podcast were UFC lightweight Gray Maynard, Dan Miller’s coach Mike Constantino, UFC president Dana White and UFC Canada operations head Tom Wright.