Hours before Matt Lindland’s last bout in Strikeforce, I received a press screener of Fighting Politics which is essentially an independent documentary that revolves around the reason Matt Lindland was really cut from the UFC, and it wasn’t because he was wearing a ‘Sportsbook’ shirt. Despite being one of the rawest middleweights to ever hit UFC, the documentary claims that Dana White cut Matt Lindland from their lineup in order to push Rich Franklin as ‘the face of UFC’. The reason, of course, was that Franklin was more ‘aesthetically pleasing’ than Lindland. Rich Franklin didn’t hunch over, he had all of his hair and most importantly, he didn’t look like he spent his entire life defending Middle Earth. In short, Matt Lindland was a frate trane and the only way Dana White could derail him was to allegedly cut him from the roster over something as insignificant as a shirt. Keep in mind that Tito Ortiz wore ‘[Expletive] Dana White’ to a weigh-in and not only was he welcomed back to UFC, but went on to coach a season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Losing to Vitor Belfort and Jacare is probably a great honor in some third-world countries. Just two fights prior to Lindland’s Affliction debut, he fought Fedor as a heavyweight in Bodog and took down Fedor at will. You could even argue that if it weren’t for Fedor holding on to the ropes as Lindland slammed him to the ground, the fight would have veered a different direction. Of course, if we lived in a world of ‘ifs’ then the terrorists would win.
LayzieTheSavage caught up with Matt Lindland and he told us that he has no intention to leave MMA, but his days of competing are pretty much over.