With victories over the likes of Ken Shamrock, Jorge Rivera, Evan Tanner (twice!) and Wanderlei Silva, you would think you would be in a good position. Add to that some great knock-out highlight material, two succesful defenses of the UFC middle weight belt and a stellar record (25-4-1). Only three men have ever beaten him: current champ Anderson Silva, current light heavy weight champ Lyoto Machida and former Pride champ (in two divisions!) Dan Henderson. There is no shame in loosing to any of those guys. You would think this guy would be on top of the world.

But Rich Franklin is very, very far from the top of the world. He is, in fact, probably the most stuck person in all of MMA. Franklin really should fight at 185, but what's the point? Silva took his belt in brutal fashion. He didn't just beat him: it was a slaughter. Franklin won his next two fights and re-challenged for the title. Silva destroyed him again. There is no way he is ever getting a shot at Silva again, and if he knows what's best for him, he doesn't want one.

But he can't move up to LHW either. Once again, there's no point. He would be fighting men much bigger than him, and the eventual goal would be to fight Machida. But he's already fought Machida and lost. And the Machida of today is much improved over the Machida that beat him before. Once again, there's just not much point to letting them fight again.

And he can't make the cut to 170: he's just too big.

So what do you do if you're Rich Franklin? Hang around, take fights when you can, and lobby like mad for a 195 division. Maybe he'll get it.

You've got to feel sorry for the guy.