Franklin: I believe I can beat Anderson Silva
Rich Franklin: “It’s just, in my mind as a champion and to have the mentality of a champion I 100% wholeheartedly believe that I can beat Anderson in a fight.”
Anderson Silva first won the UFC middleweight title by defeating Rich Franklin by TKO in the first round, and again defeated Franklin a year by TKO in the second. Despite those losses, Franklin would be happy to fight Silva for a third time because he believes it’s a fight he could win:
Would I fight Anderson a third time? Absolutely. Is it because I feel like I have some unfinished business? Not at all. It’s just, in my mind as a champion and to have the mentality of a champion I 100% wholeheartedly believe that I can beat Anderson in a fight. Not just Anderson but just anybody like that’s the mentality you have to have. If somebody says Rich do you think you can beat Anderson Silva in a fight? Absolutely, yes. Rich do you think you could beat Jon Jones in a fight? Absolutely yes. Like, you have to answer yes to those questions and not just because it’s a formality, but because you believe that stuff, because you believe in yourself and if you don’t believe in yourself then you don’t have any business pursuing a title in a sport or something like that, you don’t have any business in the pursuit of being the best.
And so yeah I would take a fight with Anderson. It wouldn’t be for any reason like redemption of vengeance or retribution or any other kinda cool word that we’ve seen on a UFC poster before, but yeah I would fight him and I believe I could beat him and that’s just me with the champions mentality.
