Rich Franklin advises young MMA hopefuls to take their time and surround themselves with people that will make them grow

Rich Franklin dropped some valuable advice for the next generation of mixed martial arts fighters on his official Instagram account yesterday.

The ONE Championship vice president may have hung up his gloves a decade ago, but the multi-time MMA world champion has been constantly on the hunt to discover new talent and assist them through their careers.

His first piece of advice to young MMA hopefuls centered around setting up a good support system and team.

“Number one, it’s all about the people you surround yourself with. You need to find a good academy and that doesn’t just mean one that has an instructor with a great reputation or tons of knowledge or tough training partners, but it's one that actually has those things, as well as a culture that's going to make you grow... As the old saying goes, iron sharpens iron. But iron only sharpens each other if they are working to sharpen each other. If you take two iron swords and you clash them together, those two swords are going to take chunks out of each other's blades and it is going to worsen the condition of the sword.”

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Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series

The 47-year-old, a teacher by profession, is always ready to lend a piece of advice. Staying true to his trade, Rich Franklin understands the importance of guiding the next batch of talented martial artists.

A perfect example of how Rich Franklin has done this would be the introduction of ONE Warrior Series in ONE Championship. The show has provided young stars with the perfect stage to ply their trade, as they learn what it takes to become a complete martial artist.

ONE Warrior Series has also developed a plethora of MMA stars. They include ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix Championship Winner Stamp Fairtex and Filipino strawweight sensation Lito ‘Thunder Kid’ Adiwang.

Rich Franklin's second piece of advice to burgeoning mixed martial artists focused on the importance of patience.

“Number two, take your time. I see so many athletes that are rushing through their amateur careers because they want to make money, get to the big stage, they're focused on all that glam, money, cars, trophies and all those things that they saw as a kid growing up... Take your time in your amateur career. That amateur career is meant to teach you things you can't learn in martial arts lessons. Things like: how you're going to react when the bright lights are in your face, what do you do with adrenaline dump, how do you pace yourself in a match, what do you do when your game plan is off, how do you adjust, listening to your corner. It's those things that you can't learn in a martial arts lesson, that you have to learn through experience."

For any aspiring MMA practitioners out there, there aren't many better individuals to take advice from than Franklin.