 In 1922, he traveled to Mexico City where he would begin a career in bullfighting.He fought bulls in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, and Panama.Writing on Sidney Franklin in "Death in the Afternoon", Ernest Hemingway says,

Franklin is brave with a cold, serene and intelligent valor but instead of being awkward and ignorant he is one of the most skillful, graceful and slow manipulators of a cape fighting today.