Franklin is a nicer guy at light heavyweight
The fighters hit the scales a few hours ago in Dublin, Ireland for UFC 93 and everything was hunky-dory. All 20 fighters made weight. Mark Coleman was the guy most people were watching. The former heavyweight used to fight in the 240-245 range. He made the light heavyweight limit at 206.
MAIN CARD
Dan Henderson (202) vs. Rich Franklin (203)
Mark Coleman (206) vs. Mauricio Rua (205)
Rousimar Palhares (184) v. Jeremy Horn (185)
Alan Belcher (186) vs. Denis Kang (184)
Chris Lytle (171) v. Marcus Davis (169)
PRELIMINARY CARD
Alexandre Barros (170) v. Martin Kampmann (168)
Eric Schafer (205) v. Antonio Mendes (204)
Thomasz Drwal (203) vs. Ivan Serati (204)
John Hathaway (171) v. Tom Egan (169)
Nate Mohr (156) v. Dennis Siver (155)
Kampmann's weight raised some eyes since this is his first fight coming down from the middleweight division. Now the key for all the fighters is re-hydrating and being at their best tomorrow night in the cage at the O2 Arena.
Rich Franklin said that he's a sweetheart when he gets to fight at light heavyweight:
"When I make 185 pounds, the weight cut itself is its own event. It's as stressful if not more stressful for me than the fight. I'm not a very nice guy fighting at 185, so everybody in the UFC likes it that I'm fighting at 205 pounds now."
Franklin didn't have much trouble getting under 205. He mentioned on the Dana White vlog from last weekend that he was walking around at just 210. He walked the Canadian Press through the process of replenishing his body. And make no mistake, it can be a scientific process. The cut to 185 is much more intense and post-weigh-in chowdown is pretty precise:
Usually what I'll do as soon as I step off the scale, I start drinking my pedialyte or some other potassium drink and I always do two peanut and butter and honey and banana sandwiches back behind the curtain (at the weigh-in) here. And then I'll go back to my room and I'm usually munching on some trail mix and stuff like that. But I have to do it at a slow pace, because the problem is, like nutritionally, I've been deprived for a couple of days, I'm really thirsty but if you start intaking everything really quickly it wears on your body, like you feel lethargic. I'll get up to my room and a lot of times I'll have a nurse come with me.
Franklin also talked about his recently deceased father, who was a big part of the process. His father often came with "Ace" on the road and administered the IV drip.
Listen here to the entire Cage Writer interview with Franklin on the eve of UFC 93.
