Former middleweight champion Rich Franklin wants one more fight in the UFC

Thirty-nine is just an age to Rich Franklin. The former middleweight champion wants another fight in the UFC as his contract allows, reports MMA Junkie.

“I have one fight left on my contract with the UFC, and it is my intention to fulfill that contract. I’m working all the time, but I’m still training quite a bit. I just have to get my business to a point where realistically I could walk away and put it on cruise control, or at least have the mechanisms in place where the business doesn't need my daily attention, and that’s just not the case now."

That bushiness is ZeLin Juice and Fusion Cafe, an organic smoothie and juice bar that he opened with business partner Billy Zebe late last year.

“I thought going into business and opening up ZeLin would be a slower pace than the fight game, but all I did was make myself busier,” Franklin said. “I did not realize what kind of time goes into building a business, especially building one from the ground up.”

Nonetheless, Franklin, who last fought in the UFC in November of 2012, wants another go. 

"There are days when you wake up and think, ‘I love the competition' [of MMA]. I love being in the game with my team and working with my coaches.’ There are other aspects of the game that I miss besides the glory and the fame and whatever else. I’m not ready to say, ‘I’m completely done’ – even if this business is super successful.”

The former UFC middleweight champion is 29-7 with one no contest in his MMA career. Franklin first won the title in 2005 by defeating Evan Tanner at UFC 53, before eventually losing the belt to Anderson Silva a year later at UFC 64.