Rich Frankin not excited at idea of coaching 'TUF 9'

If former UFC middleweight champ Rich Franklin defeats former PRIDE champ Dan Hendeson at UFC 93 on Saturday, Franklin will return to coach on "The Ultimate Fighter" season nine.

But as season one coach Franklin told reporters last week, he's not looking forward to it.

"I was really excited to do the first season," Franklin said. I'd never done anything like that before, and it was a cool experience having never done it, but going back and doing it again? No, I'm not excited about it."

Franklin and Henderson flew on Monday to the to the Wolfslair Academy in England for the elimination process. The winning fighter at UFC 93 will spend the rest of the season at "The Ultimate Fighter" gym in Las Vegas.

"It's six weeks in Vegas," Franklin explained last Tuesday. "I've been there for six weeks before and I'm constantly in Vegas and I've gotten to the point I can care less for staying in Vegas for that extended period of time. It's time away from my family and it's time away from the things that I either like doing or the things that I can do to make money, and the show doesn't pay real well so it's all around not as appealing."

Going with a USA vs. UK theme for season nine, the UK coach will be Michael Bisping. And following tradition, the opposing coaches will fight either at the finale or on a following pay-per-view.

Franklin has always been one of the UFC's most loyal fighters and because of that, don't expect Franklin to turn down the coaching offer.

"But anything the UFC asks me to do I'm always on board for because they've always been good to me," Franklin said.