Former middleweight UFC champion Rich Franklin says he would consider fighting again, under the right circumstances.

Franklin, 47, (29-7 MMA) has not entered the Octagon since November of 2012 where he went down to defeat against Cung Le (9-3 MMA) in a middleweight bout.

‘Ace’ officially retired in the fall of 2015. Franklin has stayed active in the MMA world and is currently the Vice President of Asian mixed martial arts company ‘ONE Championship’.

During a sit down interview with Chael Sonnen, the former world champion, Rich Franklin, admitted he still has a desire to compete in the cage (h/t Sportskeeda):

“I look at old videos of myself and I’ll be watching TV, it feels like I’m watching somebody else. It was a different lifetime, and sometimes I scratch my head like ‘Why do people do this?’ Make no mistake about it, under the right circumstances I would probably be like ‘Yeah I got a couple more left in the tank.”

Although Franklin didn’t outline what the ‘right circumstances’ would be for him to get back in competition, even the potential of a return would inevitably get his fans excited.

“You know the transition from fighter to executive was weird. I don’t know about you but when I first started working for ONE it took me probably a year and a half of going into the arena and not feeling I was there for a fight.”

Concluding, Rich Franklin said:

“I’m sitting there the whole time, my stomach, everything was going. I hated the feeling, it took me a while and then I finally got to the point that (I said) ‘I’m not on tonight. I’m just here to enjoy and watch.”

It lends itself to the tag line – once a fighter, always a fighter.

Would you like to see Rich Franklin make a come-back in the Octagon? Who would you like to see him go to battle with?

Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!