THE MENTAL GAME

Rich Franklin Talks About the Unseen Side of MMA
by Jatinder Dhoot

After winning all four of his Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts and defeating Ken Shamrock in the first live televised mixed-martial arts event in North America in April 2005, Rich Franklin is a big shot in the MMA world. With a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s in mathematics, the math-teacher-turned-mixed-martial-artist is a thinking man’s fighter. In this exclusive interview, he reveals the secrets of mastering the mental component of combat.
—J.D.

Black Belt: How do you mentally prepare for a match in the Ultimate Fighting Championship?

Rich Franklin: The best thing that I do—for example, when I was getting ready for Ken Shamrock—is select several guys in the gym that are most like Shamrock in their fighting style, their size, their strength, their athletic ability. Then I prepare with those guys day in and day out. When you do well against them in training, you feel like you’re prepared to go into the fight, which helps you with your mental edge because you know you can perform well.

BB: There is so much pressure before a fight. How do you remain relaxed?

Franklin: You have to keep reminding yourself that all those other factors don’t matter and that you have to focus on winning this fight. If you let your mind start to wonder what will happen if you lose, you become unfocussed. When the immediate goal isn’t what’s on your mind, you end up losing.

BB: What are you thinking right before a bout begins?

Franklin: Every fighter goes through the stages of nervousness and anxiety. At first, when you accept the fight, you’re like, “Yeah, OK, I’m fighting!” Then several weeks later, it starts to become reality. You’re training day in and day out, and you might get a little nervous. Then several weeks after that when you start approaching the fight, you’re anxious and you want it to get started. That’s pretty much what I’m thinking in the locker room. I’m just anxious. I’ve done everything I can do. The fight will take its course; I’m just ready to get it out of the way.

BB: Does your background in mathematics mentally help you in the octagon?

Franklin: I’m definitely not solving equations in the ring (laughs), but the logical thinking style, the deductive reasoning and things like that all help. I think that keeps me calm in the ring. I’m a thinking fighter, and I don’t act aggressively on impulse.

BB: When you’re in a tough fight—like when you faced Jorge Rivera at the UFC 50—and things aren’t going your way, what goes through your head?

Franklin: I still try to be as methodical as I can, but it’s easy to lose some of your reasoning as pure heart takes over. I don’t care how smart you are—there has to be a desire to win, and if you don’t have that, you won’t win.

BB: Do you have any examples of how you or other fighters have mentally broken down in fights?

Franklin: I had a fight against Anthony Rea. At the beginning, things were not going my way. He clipped me good on my feet, then I shot in on him and took a bad shot. He almost had me in a guillotine—we were north-south belly down. When I was defending against the guillotine and it was almost sunk in, I thought, I’m going to lose this fight. Then I just thought, I’ve got to regain my composure, remain calm and get my butt in gear. And I was able to turn the fight around.

I’ve seen it happen to fighters before: When they mentally break—oftentimes it happens before the fight begins, but you see it happen in the ring when somebody gets hit with a good body shot and it just takes the wind out of their sails—suddenly they’re confused. They don’t know what to do, and you can see it. It’s like quicksand; once you step in, you keep sinking.

BB: Do you visualize your fights beforehand?

Franklin: Yes. You can’t help it. You dream about them, you daydream about them, you visualize them. You put yourself in scenarios and tell yourself, “If he does this, I’ll do this.” You can go on for days, but the fact of the matter is, you never know how the fight will go. So when I’m visualizing, I definitely don’t use that as a game plan.

BB: Do you feel as relaxed in the octagon as you do in training?

Franklin: I’m a little more jittery in the ring than I am on a normal training day. When I come into a training day and I get tapped out, it’s not that big of a deal. But in the ring, it is a big deal. I’ve heard fighters say, “Well, at least if you lose, it’s a learning experience.” My philosophy is that when you train, that’s the time you learn, and when you fight, that’s the time you perform.

BB: Do you study video of yourself and your opponents?

Franklin: I’m consistently looking at myself. I’ve already watched my Shamrock fight two or three times. When I watch a fight, I don’t watch it for entertainment but to critique my technique and my performance. As soon as I have a contract locked down with an opponent, I get videotapes on him—as many as I can.

BB: Who have been your greatest influences in MMA?

Franklin: I don’t really know. I’ve always tried to define my own path. I’ve met some great friends along the way and great training partners here in Cincinnati, so those people have collaboratively influenced me, but I couldn’t look at one person and say, “That’s definitely my biggest influence.”

BB: You thank God after your fights and believe he’s with you in your training and your fighting. Does that spiritual aspect give you a mental edge?

Franklin: For me, it does. I believe that I’m a man of God and he’s with me in the ring. I pray for victory. First John 5:14 says that if we ask for anything and he hears us, and if it’s according to his will, I’ll win. If it’s not, I won’t. That’s predetermined before I walk into the ring. God knows whether I’m going to win or lose. I can’t completely take the stress away, but I constantly tell myself God has a plan.

BB: Can ego become a hindrance in fighting? If so, how do you contain it?

Franklin: It definitely can. Arrogance and overconfidence will hurt a fighter. You grow up watching sports, and you see things like that happen. Football teams have big streaks, then they’re suddenly broken by the worst team in the league. Oftentimes I attribute that to overconfidence. If you constantly remind yourself of that, it keeps you in check. You try to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

BB: Does being well-rounded increase your confidence because you know you can be comfortable fighting in any position?

Franklin: Yes and no. You have to remember that when you go into a fight, even though you’re a well-rounded person, you could be fighting somebody who’s a better striker or a wild striker. You always have to worry about that lucky punch. If you look at two guys on paper, you can definitely point to one and say, “He should win.” But in a fight, there are so many other factors that you never know what’s going to happen. It can strip your confidence right out of you. You can’t get overconfident, and you can’t have an ego.

BB: Does the crowd ever affect your attitude during a bout?

Franklin: No. I’ve been in crowds where I was the favorite, and I’ve been in crowds where I was the underdog. When I get in the ring, it’s like the rest of the arena goes black and there’s a spotlight on the ring. It’s me, the other fighter, the referee and my corners. Those are the only people who exist for the 15 minutes of the fight. And when that’s over, the crowd reappears. During the fight, I have a job to do, and I block everything else out.

About the author: Jatinder Dhoot is a free-lance writer who frequently covers the mixed martial arts for his sports show on 105.5 FM in Toronto.

The Journey

Mentally preparing for a fight is like: “All right, here we are on another journey, another challenge. How am I going to get around this one? What did I learn from the past and what can I take into it?” Also, there’s a little deep reflection into who you are at this moment in time and where you are going.

That’s basically my process. For other guys, I’m sure it’s different. But for me, it’s always about who I am, why I’m here and what I’m here to do. Coming to understand the task ahead is the first thing; after that, it’s just going through the motions.
—Carlos Newton

Pressure Factor

I say just be relaxed. If you can fight in the ring or the cage the same way you do in the dojo with no stress and everything is relaxed, you probably will win if you fight your best. But the difficult thing is when you get in the ring, your friends, your family, TV, everybody is there. Suddenly there’s a lot of pressure on you. To get rid of that, you have to set your mind.
—Bas Rutten