Rich Franklin Leaves Home to Prepare for Title Shot - MMAUniverse.com | MMA Shorts | MMA Gloves | MMA Clothing

Rich Franklin is leaving home to prepare for his clash with Anderson Silva. Silva will travel to Franklin’s home city of Cincinnati to defend his Middleweight belt at the aptly named: UFC 77: Hostile Territory on October 20th 2007. Franklin told the Middletown Journal that he needs to get away from the distractions of home to prepare.

“It's the everyday hustle and bustle of life," Franklin said. "Getting up and checking my e-mail in the morning and having to worry about returning business calls and all that kind of stuff. Quite frankly, once I leave town Monday, when I wake up Tuesday morning for my first training day the only thing I'm going to worry about from that time to the fight is training. Everything else can fall by the wayside."

"(Public Relations Work) It takes away from your family and all that kind of stuff and builds distractions into your training. Knowing that if I have some PR work to do this evening when I'm done training, I have to come into the gym, get my stuff done and I can't go home and rest for the remainder of the evening and plan for tomorrow's training. I have to worry about what PR is on the agenda."

“That's why I'm leaving town. It's not going to be tough at all, because I won't be here."

"I've obviously never had this kind of exposure locally. This is insane. As for the sport, I don't know. I think this is one of those fights that could possibly make me a hall of famer or not within the UFC."

Franklin will set up camp at an undisclosed Western location. His travelling party will include three coaches and three training companions, including Jorge Gurgel, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who has been alongside Franklin throughout his career.

Rich Franklin is one of the most popular fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Prior to becoming a fighter, he taught Mathematics at a Cincinnati high School. He won the UFC Middleweight title from Evan Tanner at UFC 53: Heavy Hitters in June 2005. After two successful defences, he lost the title to Muay Thai specialist Anderson Silva at UFC 64: Unstoppable. Since then, he has registered victories against Jason MacDonald and Yushin Okami, but many doubt he will be able to regain the title.

Anderson Silva stopped Franklin in the first round of their previous contest and, even with a packed Ohio crowd cheering him on, Rich Franklin will be considered the underdog.

UFC 77: Hostile Territory will also see another former champion in action. Tim Sylvia lost the Heavyweight belt to Randy Couture at UFC 68: The Uprising; the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s last visit to Ohio. Unlike Franklin, Tim Sylvia has always struggled to win the affections of the fans. The cheers that greeted Randy Couture's incredible title win were matched by the boos that rang out in the arena when Sylvia gave his post fight interview. Tim Sylvia has blamed his sluggish performance that night on an injury. He will need to be at the peak of fitness if he is to make a winning return against the dynamic Brandon Vera.