Baltimore Sun's Mark Chalifoux recently spoke with UFC star Rich Franklin. Franklin is back in action this Saturday at UFC 88 in Atlanta and will be moving up a weight class. He will be facing a fellow Cincinnatian Matt Hamill in the light heavyweight division. Below is the full interview with Franklin as seen on MMA Stomping Grounds, Chalifoux's MMA blog for baltimoresun.com:

MMA Stomping Grounds: Why the move up to 205?

Rich Franklin: I was talking to the UFC after the second [Anderson] Silva loss and they encouraged me to move up to 205. They told me my position there would be more appealing to them from a business perspective. They weren’t interested in a third match between me and Silva and they didn’t want me fighting contenders because I could eliminate possible title fights, so I was stuck in that I was going to be fighting people on the back end of their losses to Silva and I didn’t care for that gatekeeper position. After the Travis Lutter fight, I said I would try my hand at 205 again.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What’s the toughest part of the transition in weight classes?

Rich Franklin: I think that’s a question better suited for September 7, but me giving up some pounds there is quite the adjustment. If I’m carrying an extra 20 pounds in this fight and it goes the full 15 minutes, that takes a toll on conditioning.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What do you think about Matt Hamill?

Rich Franklin: He’s looked great, his success doesn’t surprise me at all. Matt’s an accomplished wrestler and a competitor. The first time I met him it was before he was doing MMA and I said when you’re done wrestling and all that -- he was making run for Athens games -- you ought to give MMA a thought because you could be good at it ... and before I knew it he was in The Ultimate Fighter and his only loss is a controversial one. He’s looked strong.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What would be your ideal fight?

Rich Franklin: I don’t know, it doesn’t really matter to me, I’m really just all about competing and having fun, doing it and putting on good fights for the fans. I’m one of those guys where if fans said “we’d love to see Rich Franklin fight so and so” I’d be in to doing that.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What part of the sport's growth has you the most excited?

Rich Franklin: I would guess the international growth at this point. The international growth the UFC is experiencing is showing how solid the future is going to be for this sport. So that’s great for guys like myself, who 10 years from now, I won't be fighting anymore and having a job within the MMA profession will be a possibility, but it’s also exciting for up-and-coming athletes.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What do you think is the biggest misconception casual sports fans have about MMA?

Rich Franklin: It’s that there are no rules. It’s the funniest thing I hear people talk about. People say, “I’ve seen that you fight in cage and there’s no rules,” and I’m sitting there [thinking] “yeah, exactly.” Quite frankly, the rule book for this sport is complex, more so than for most sports probably.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What is one thing you would want people to know about you?

Rich Franklin: I just think that people see the TV persona that’s developed and although I’m a lot like my TV persona, things get amplified and magnified so to speak, and all that stuff gets taken out of proportion. One aspect of your life seems to overwhelm public perception and they forget about other things. From what they read in newspapers they think they know you, but what it boils down to is they don’t.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Have you ever had any weird requests from fans?

Rich Franklin: Yeah, requests like “can you shave your autograph into my back hair” or stuff like that, it’s really not that bad though. I don’t get, like, women’s panties in the mail or weird fan mail or anything. I have had threatening phone calls to my house on numerous occasions. People call to threaten to kill me or beat me up when I’m not looking. My wife has also had threatening phone calls, which is odd because I’m a fairly well-liked fighter, so its weird. It’s weird having that kind of stuff happen because I come from a normal small town here in Ohio and suddenly my life is blown up and I’m perceived to be way more important than I am.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Do people call you a lot like that?

Rich Franklin: It’s kind of out of the blue, it will be three or four in the morning. I had a string of these calls occur over a couple months where they came semi-frequently. Then when I was out of town my wife was getting them. I had a fan who one time did some research and got my home number and called my house. My wife picked up and he said “This is Bob, I’m calling Rich about an interview,” and she said, “OK, who are you with?” He just said, “Oh, with no one, I just wanted to interview him.”

MMA Stomping Grounds: Do you have to contact the authorities when you get calls like that or do you just shrug them off?

Rich Franklin: At this point I’ve shrugged them off. It irritates me more than anything else. I don’t know, I guess being a fighter you feel you can take care of yourself anyway, but it’s never gotten to a point where I feel the need to call the police.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Looking on the upside of your fame, what are some of the cooler experiences you’ve been able to have during your time as a fighter?

Rich Franklin:That’s the thing with fame -- there’s the good side and the bad side. The bad side is when you’re out in public you get recognized, I couldn’t go to a club down here in Cincinnati without expecting to take 100 pictures with people on phones so they can put that crap on MySpace. I understand that goes on when I go out. The cool side of it is I’ve been able to do a lot of things most people haven’t. I got to go visit the troops in Iraq in 2006 and I’m getting ready to go back to the Middle East again. I’ve done tons of cool stuff around the military, like going on aircraft carriers and on a basic level I get invited to nice restaurants and people pay for dinner occasionally. You rarely have to wait in line for clubs and stuff like that. As you’re sitting there signing autographs in a club and by time you hit the 50th picture it’s like “at least we didn’t have to wait in line for this place.” Your friends think its more cool than [I do] but it has some perks.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Does the fame ever feel surreal to you?

Rich Franklin: No, as far as I’m concerned, fame is a fickle thing. One minute people love you, the next they hate you. You always have loyal fans that think you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread, but really, 99 percent of my life I’m just your average guy. I’m sitting at my home today wondering if I’m going to have to cut my grass before the fight again. I’m not wanting to have to sit on my tractor for a couple hours in the sun doing it but that’s my typical life. It’s pretty normal and things will be more that way once I’m out of limelight and retire. For most part people will forget about you. I sign autographs not because it does anything for my ego but because the people that ask you for it wouldn’t understand if you didn’t sign it, and I want fans to have a good experience when they meet me.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What’s the toughest part about being Rich Franklin?

Rich Franklin: Juggling all the aspects of my life. So many people want your time. Once you gain some notoriety or perceived importance everyone wants or needs you. You have appearances for this charity or sign autographs for this or make appearances at this fight. I need to go visit the troops and I need to train and I need to do PR work for my fights but on top of everything else I need to make time for everything else -- family, friends and training and its difficult to juggle all of that.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Do you follow MMA much when you aren’t training/fighting?

Rich Franklin:Yes and no. I watch the bigger fights but there’s so much stuff. MMA has exploded so much that you could sit down and you got your Versus channel and your HDnet and the UFC and the WEC and all these other shows and acronyms. If you DVR’d everything on MMA on TV you could watch fights nonstop in your waking hours. I spend so much time in the gym training that sometimes the last thing I want to do is come home and watch more fights. I do watch some fights and anytime there’s a WEC and Jens Pulver or one of my friends fighting I’ll catch the show, but I’m always definitely making sure I pay attention to UFC events and major fights. Honestly, my wife probably keeps up with that way more than I do.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What do you like to do away from fighting?

Rich Franklin: Well, when I’m training, I’m an athlete and an athletic kind of guy so I like to do anything active, but I don’t have the energy when I’m training. I will do things like play my drums, practice my Portuguese. I do often times spend a lot of time reading my bible and stuff like that.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Finally, what do you need to do against Hamill to be successful?

Rich Franklin: I think I gotta be quick on my feet. I’m giving up some weight so he might be giving up some speed. I need to use my footwork to confuse him and stick and move and stick and move and avoid takedowns. Once he does take me down, I can’t let him lay on top of me. I need to stay active on the ground.

Taken from: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/mma/blog/2008/09/qa_with_rich_franklin.html

According to the Associated Press, Minnesota assistant wrestling coach Marty Morgan is leaving the program in order to focus full time and exclusively on his former collegiate champion Brock Lesnar's fledgling MMA career.

Brock Lesnar (picture) is on the rise in the UFC heavyweight ranks. He will fight against Randy Couture for the promotions heavyweight championship in November. He also was once an NCAA heavyweight champion at the college.

Morgan spent 16 years coaching at Minnesota after wrestling for the college himself. He says he will take the next year to concentrate on helping Lesnar train in the MMA field before reevaluating his plans then.

Lesnar won his last UFC match at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota last month.

Eric Hibler, one of the trainers at the Pittsburgh Fight Club in Kurt Angle's hometown in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania tells that Angle has been training and would like to have at least one mixed martial arts fight before he is unable to.

"Kurt is an international superstar with a very busy schedule. When Kurt is in town he does train here," Hibler revealed.

"He's very low profile and easy to talk to. Everyone likes him and he's the man when it comes to fired-up hard workouts."

"Kurt is an amazing open-minded individual and his ability to focus on a task is world class, no matter what we are working on. However, MMA even though it relates, is very different from wrestling."

"Kurt must relearn strategy and tactics for better game play with real fighting. On the other hand, Kurt is a trainer's dream. He was born to train and compete."

"For now, his wrestling gives him excellent penetration ability for takedown transitions and a strong ground sense to help his positioning for ground and pound and submission set-ups," added him.

"Kurt's planning to participate in at least one MMA fight when he gets the right offer."

"To date he has not signed with any fight promotion."

Sometimes a change of environment can be good for a person. Getting a fresh perspective on things can often stem a tide of bad luck.

This is what the UFC fighter Jason "The Punisher" Lambert hopes to do with his recent move down to middleweight division to face Jason "The Athlete" MacDonald at UFC 88 on September 6 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Long a dominant force in the smaller shows, Lambert has experienced a mixed bag since making his UFC debut in 2006.

On one hand he's had impressive wins over the likes of top 205-pound Brazilian fighter Renato "Babalu" Sobral, and on the other he's lost three of his last four fights heading into Atlanta (from Rashad Evans, Wilson Gouveia and Luis "Banha" Cane).

With the decision to move down in weight, he looks to recapture past prominence and establish himself as a legitimate title contender.

"I've been training my butt off and getting ready to get down to 185," said Lambert of his recent activities.

"It's been going good. I've been working a lot on strength, endurance and stuff like that, trying to keep a lot of my strength going down in weight class."

Long known for his physicality, he says so far he hasn't experienced a loss in power that some fighters experience when changing weight classes.

"I'm still doing a lot of things that I did at the old weight class," he reiterated. "Just sticking with those routines has been pretty tough when you're cutting back on calories, but it's been going pretty well."

"The whole goal is to move quick and still keep that power. I'm just ready to get out there and get back into the octagon and test my skills."

At UFC 88, Lambert is slated to face MacDonald, a Canadian fighter who is also looking to get back on track after a loss in his last fight.

"I'm expecting a high-paced ground fight," he commented. "Both of us like to fight on the ground, so I think we're both going to be fighting for that top position."

"I'm sure he's going to be looking for some submissions, and I'm going to be looking to ground and pound, so it should be quite a ground war, for sure."

The loser of this fight could very well find himself out of the UFC, but Lambert says he's not feeling any of those anxieties heading into the match-up.

"I kind of try to drop some of the pressure," he admitted. "A lot of people can get sucked into that, but I'm just trying to go out there and have a good performance either way."

"I can't control every aspect, I just know I can control myself, and I want as fight as hard as I possibly can, and whatever happens is gonna happen."

Win or lose, he wants to continue to be active and take full advantage of his formative years in the sport.

"I just want to fight," exclaimed Lambert. "I want to get out there and compete as much as my body will let me."

"I wanna get out there and constantly improve. I think that's where you do it the most – in fights – the more you stay inactive and on the shelf, it doesn't help so much."

In a new weight class with an opportunity to rebuild his career, Lambert knows now is the time if he wants to make the run he's always been capable of, sooner than later.

"I want to thank Sprall fight shots and Cobian footwear, and my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ," he closed out.

"Thanks to all the people that stick next to me win or lose, because they know I'm gonna bring it. I come to fight hard for them, so I thank them for all their support."

Ben Askren, a 2008 Olympic wrestler, who just returned from the Beijing Olympics will soon decide if he will continue to work toward the 2012 Olympic Games in London or make a move into the MMA.

The University of Missouri wrestler, who won the 2006 and 2007 NCAA National Championship in wrestling in the 174-pound weight class, is a long time fan of the sport and sees the level of competition he could face as a whole new challenge.

"I see it as the ultimate competition, one man against another man, very limited rules, and the toughest guy wins. So that's definitely what I like about it," said Askren.

He competed at 174 pounds while in college and at 163 pounds while in the Olympics, but he said if fighting is his ultimate choice, he would compete in the 170-pound welterweight division.

He has worked in Missouri with a local gym rolling in jiu-jitsu a couple of times a week already, but has very limited striking experience to his credit. Askren is realistic about a move into MMA and knows he has a lot to learn.

"I'm not going to go in the cage unprepared," he stated. "I'm a worker and I'm going to work. I'm going to get good at what I do. I want to get good at jiu-jitsu, get good at striking, and I'm going to go in there prepared."

The Olympian stated in the interview that he's a fan of MMA fighters such as Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, and has seen the success of the past top wrestlers such as Matt Lindland and Josh Koscheck in MMA.

"Pretty much any high level wrestler that applies themselves to mixed martial arts does well in it," he commented. "I think you'd be hard pressed to find one that actually trained in mixed martial arts and didn't do well."

Just getting home from China a few days ago, Askren has thoughts of possibly competing in the Olympics again, while also mulling the decision to coach at his almamater or making the move to MMA. It's a decision he will make very soon.

"That's a decision I've got to make coming up really soon, maybe in the next couple weeks," he said. "There's a definite possibility I might just focus on MMA. I don't want to say 100 percent, but it's definitely a possibility."

Of course being an Olympic level wrestler, Askren also wants to fight the very best in the world if he does transition into MMA.

"I want to face tough opponents, I don't want to face 'cans', as they call them," he commented.

Askren's next move will be to attend the upcoming World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) event to take a look at high level MMA first hand. WEC 36 takes place on September 10 in Florida and features a main event title bout between the defending WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber and challenger Mike Brown.

From The MMA News:

In the world of mixed martial arts, Frank Shamrock has done it all. Shamrock’s been the Interim King of Pancrase champion, won the UFC light heavyweight title, then won the WEC light heavyweight title which he vacated to win the Strikeforce middleweight championship which he only recently lost to Cung Le. The MMA News recently had a talk with Shamrock and here’s what was said:

The MMA News: How’s your injury and what’s the update on your overall condition?

Frank Shamrock: I’m cleared so the arm is back to normal. I’m training at about 60% now.

The MMA News: Are you still looking to fight this year?

Frank Shamrock: I’m looking for a fight in November if I can get all the cards in place. I’m trying to pick a fight with Robbie Lawler.

The MMA News: How many fights do you have left on your contract?

Frank Shamrock: With Strikeforce I have one, with Pro-Elite I have two more.

The MMA News: Do you find that you don’t always get the credit for helping to innovate MMA conditioning to the levels that it has achieved now?

Frank Shamrock: I don’t know. I mean I don’t know if I need credit but I was at the forefront of it for a long time. Even now I think I’m still pretty advanced with what’s going on. The sport grows so fast and the history of it is so cloudy that I’m just glad that guys are in good shape and the level of athletism continues to grow.

The MMA News: What’s going on with you outside MMA?

Frank Shamrock: It’s all about the kids.

The MMA News: How’s the commentating with CBS working out?

Frank Shamrock: I’m the official CBS MMA expert guy. I’ve signed up for 4-6 a year, and I put a lot of juice into it.

The MMA News: What’s your take on Kimbo Slice?

Frank Shamrock: He’s generally a nice guy. He’s medium skilled but he’s dedicated. If you can’t be the best at least you can make the best of the opportunity.

The MMA News: How about Fedor Emelianenko?

Frank Shamrock: I’ve met him on a couple of occasions and he’s the nicest guy in the world. He’s a fan of mine, and he’s so nice and respectful. He’s always been wonderful to me.

The MMA News: How was Affliction:Banned for you?

Frank Shamrock: I had a blast at the show.

The MMA News: How’s your relationship with Ken?

Frank Shamrock: I don’t think we’ll ever be okay. We grew up weird. Ken and I grew up in the media in a sport that was just like the wild west and we’re totally different people.

The MMA News: Are you still looking at trying to fight Ken?

Frank Shamrock: Yes. The first quarter of ‘09 is when we’re looking at making it, and I think we’re on schedule to do that.

The MMA News: How about Tito Ortiz?

Frank Shamrock: I talked to Tito about it and he was pretty game. I think it’s going to happen and I think that Affliction will play a big part in that.

The MMA News: Where Is MMA headed?

Frank Shamrock: I think that the media property outside the industry will spur mainstream attention to what we’re doing. I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be the fighting itself, but perhaps a book or a docu-drama that will bring the attention and push the sport to the next level

The MMA News: Other than yourself who would you say is the pound for pound best fighter in the world.

Frank Shamrock: Probably for popularity I would say GSP or Anderson Silva. It’s so funny because I’ve been that guy on multiple occasions and all of a sudden you’re not that guy and you think “Wow that’s interesting” and you eventually learn it doesn’t mean anything. At one point I was the highest paid fighter per second and the best pound for pound fighter in the world and we had the smallest audience ever. Does it really mean all that much? I just smile because next year there’ll be another guy.

The MMA News: Give us some last words, first for your fans and then for your opponents.

Frank Shamrock: For the fans: Keep working out, keep training. For my opponents: Keep working out, keep training.

It's from the boxing scene. The World Boxing Association (WBA) Featherweight Champion Chris "The Dragon" John (41-0-1, 22 KOs), from Indonesia, will put his title belt on the line againsts the unbeaten Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) ruler Hiroyuki Enoki (27-0-2, 19 KOs), a hard-punching Japanese, in Tokyo, Japan, on October 24.

By any coincidence both the champion and the challenger were born on the same day, September 14, 1979, so there's no age difference between them. Chris John, making his tenth defense since acquiring the WBA throne by defeating Oscar Leon in 2003, is regarded as a formidable kingpin, having beaten such name challengers like Juan Manuel Marquez (even by a hairline decision), Derrick Gainer, Osamu Sato and Jose Cheo Rojas.

Enoki, the current OPBF Featherweight Champion, is a game battler with stinging left hand who recently kept his regional belt by a unanimous draw (all 114-114) with highly world rated national champion Takahiro Aoh in a WBA elimination match this April. The also unbeaten Aoh will have an ambitious crack at the World Boxing Council (WBC) diadem against Oscar Larios here on October 16, just eight days earlier than Enoki.

It was surprising that the gallant challenger was so much moved by this long-anticipated title shot that he wept at the press conference and couldn't speak well before stunned people. But Enoki said, "I waited long for this opportunity, and will respond to my supporters' expectations by winning the belt." It is okay he cried at the press conference, but will never in the ring like Oliver McCall. Enoki will have a puncher's chance. But, Chris John will be his hardest opponent to be defeat.