Former UFC champion Rich Franklin backs UFC parental decision to kick Conor McGregor off of UFC 200

These days, everyone is getting in on the Conor McGregor saga. Whether it's Chael Sonnen's head coaching comments, referee John McCarthy's monetary breakdown, or FOX Sports personality Colin Cowherd's brutal reality check, the sports world has not been short on opinions.

Can you blame them? This entire McGregor vs Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) escapade has attracted interest around the globe. It's taken on a life of its own.

Former UFC Middleweight champion Rich Franklin is the newest member to the team. He recently opened up about the promotion's decision to keep McGregor off of the biggest pay-per-view event of the year, UFC 200, in a recent interview with Brett Okamoto of ESPN:

"Now, I don't know the terms of Conor's contract and I don't know the conversations that were had but if I, as a promoter, had an agreement with a fighter to do a certain set of media and as the fighter got to thinking about it and said, "I don't want to disrupt my camp," then we'd have an issue. The way Conor went about it, basically announcing his retirement -- once the UFC pulled him and made that statement as the promoter, it's kind of like disciplining a child. Once you've made a statement, consistency is probably the most important thing."

The former mixed martial arts (MMA) standout may seem like he's pro-UFC in this case, but Franklin also stressed the importance of utilizing social media outlets to help mitigate these type of situations in the future:

"Obviously, there are certain media days you have to attend, but we live in a social media age where there are creative ways to do things. I've been on those media tours where you're flying from city to city and it's not easy and it can derail your training. You just have to creatively think of doing things in ways that minimize the amount of time he has to spent out of camp. There has to be flexibility."

While the 41-year-old brings up some valid concerns, anything at this point should be considered extra banter. The promotion has already made up its mind and has never really given in to fighter demands.