Rich Franklin is a former UFC champion and long time staple of the top end of major UFC events. But that isn't enough to have earned him enough money to retire comfortably, even with a reasonably conservative lifestyle.

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Franklin spoke about the subject with Fight Hub TV's David Ortiz, starting with his take on fighter pay in the promotion in general:

Listen, everybody is put on their own schedule. What the UFC negotiates with me is different than what they negotiate with somebody else and so on and so forth. From a business standpoint, I get it. The UFC isn't in the business of just giving away money. It's your job to negotiate that money. It is difficult because they're the only player on the block. This is the analogy that I use with people: In the NFL I can negotiate my contract with a team. If I don't like that contract I can...there's 31 other teams to negotiate with. And, I know it's not that easy, but the point is...there are other sources that you can go to. The UFC is the only player, so it does give them a bit of an edge. But, kudos to them for having such a great business plan. I've never been one to talk about fighter pay with somebody else. I know there are fighters out there that make way more money than I do, and I would never complain if someone wanted to add a decimal place to my paycheck. But, you have to remember that I was...and we talked about this previously, but I was a high school teacher and I transitioned into MMA. And I made way more money fighting than I ever would have teaching high school. Honestly, I feel blessed that I've been given the opportunities I've been given and I feel blessed that I've made the money that I've made. And, I see now that fighters are coming in and guys like Jones are coming in and they're getting bigger contracts and the sport is more mainstream, they have better endorsement opportunities...the Gatorades and the Nikes and the Under Armours weren't there 5, 6, 7 years ago when I was at the top of the game. So I missed out on that. I was on the wave before the big wave. So, yeah, it would have been nice if I made more money in my career but I'm not complaining about the amount of money I made for sure. The UFC always treated me well and they basically did the things that they said they were going to do.

Franklin was then asked if he could retire if he retired from the sport today: