From the Championship to the Statehouse: MMAOpinion Talks to Matt Lindland (Part 1)

On Tuesday, September 2nd I sat down with one of the most interesting and controversial fighters in the brief history of mixed martial arts; Matt “The Law” Lindland. There are many who cite him as an intelligent figure in a sport once dubbed “human cockfighting,” and there are many who note him as an Olympic silver medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling, a truly legitimate and phenomenal athlete, who led the way for athletes to come to this sport and flourish.

He appeared on Larry King Live with now-UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock and Presidential hopeful John McCain to discuss the legality of the sport, in its beginnings, and he is truly a warrior in ever sense of the word.

For those who haven’t heard much on Matt’s latest activities, he is currently running for the House of Representatives in the State of Oregon, District 42, and has already won the Republican nomination. He has an upcoming fight with Trevor Prangley on the next Affliction card and he’s cornering everyone from Dan Henderson, in Dan’s fight at UFC 88, to Chael Sonnen, who will fight Paulo Filho for the WEC world middleweight title on September 10th.

This interview has been broken into two parts. In the first, I talked to Matt about his upcoming fights, his thoughts on what’s going on in the fight world right now and his take on a few of the latest matchups. In the second we discussed his political campaign, his personal philosophy and what’s going on right now in his very active business life.

Josh Stein: To start things off, I want to congratulate you on the new political career and a lot of the new stuff you’ve got going on.

Matt Lindland: Thanks, man.

JS: You’ve got a fight coming up with Trevor Prangley, are you looking to put him on his back?

ML: Yeah, he’s got hands, he’s got wrestling, he’s got a lot of power. He came up to help me train for the last fight [with Fabio Negao] and we’ve never fought each other. He’s been involved in this sport for a long time. I’m very fortunate, got a lot of good workout partners.

JS: You have any thoughts on Vitor [Belfort] dropping out of the fight?

ML: I was really looking forward to the Vitor fight, and I was really looking forward to that fight in the future, but I think that the Prangley fight is a tougher fight. Trevor’s definitely at the peak of his game.

JS: So, you are training with Chael Sonnen for his fight with Paulo Filho. A lot of people think that Filho is the #2 fighter in the world, behind Anderson Silva. Any thoughts on that fight?

ML: I still think I’m the best middleweight in the world, and I think that Chael is number two. The may be blending the UFC and WEC, so he can fight Anderson, but we’re not gonna look past Paulo Filho. Chael is looking phenomenal. There are a lot of people who don’t put him in the top ten, and I think that’s a huge mistake. It’s gonna be a great fight for Chael. I think if he wins he should be #2 in the world.

JS: Anybody you’d like to fight?

ML: I’d like to fight Anderson Silva. Everybody thinks he’s the best guy in the world and I’d love the chance to prove them wrong.

JS: Would you be willing to go back to the UFC?

ML: It’s up to the UFC. I’ve got two more fights with Affliction, but I ‘d never say never with anything.

JS: How do you like fighting in the middleweight division?

ML: There are a lot of great guys in the middleweight division. When you look at combat sports, you’ve got to look at it like a bell-curve. It’s not gonna be with the big guys, it’s gonna be with the middle sized guys, that’s where most of the talent comes from because that’s where most adult men are. Most heavyweights don’t move like [Fedor], and that’s why he’s so good.

JS: Speaking of Fedor, are you over the rope grabbing?

ML: I was over it when if happened, it was in Russia, in his home town, in front of his crowd. They woulda killed the referees wife if he had made the wrong call. Ironically enough, Fedor’s the only one who missed the rules meeting. It was a pain in the ass, because we had to go on a three hour ride to the arena, when we could have done it at the hotel.

JS: You’ve fought a lot of bigger guys, do you like fighting bigger guys?

ML: The bottom line is, it’s just a fight. It doesn’t matter how big the guy is, you gotta fight. It’s just fun to get in there and punch somebody in the face.

JS: I’m want to pick your brain on a few fights. So I’ll just throw them out there and you tell me what you think.

ML: Go ahead.

JS: Chuck [Liddell] vs. Rashad Evans

ML: I like Chuck. I’d pick Chuck against anybody but Randy. I was surprised he got caught by Quinton, but Wanderlei seems to have [‘page’s] number.

JS: Dan vs. [Rousimar] Palhares

ML: Dan needs to win that fight, and I think he’s gonna knock him out. [Palhares] doesn’t have real crisp punches. Dan’s just gonna come straight and come down the middle. He’s gonna try and take Dan and down and Dan’s gonna let his wrestling work.

JS: [Chris] Leben vs. [Michael] Bisping

ML: [Leben’s] one of my boys. He just showed up at my gym one of day and said, “I wanna do this.” He’s training in Hawaii now, but he’s still one of my guys. I didn’t think Bisping was that good, and all of a sudden Bisping really improved. That tells me he must be a hard worker. You don’t get that good without work. I was impressed the last time I saw him fight.

JS: Anderson [Silva] vs. [Patrick] Cote

ML: That’s not really a matchup . I don’t think Cote is an elite fighter by any stretch of the imagination. I wouldn’t say that Leben or Bisping are elite fighters either, but they’re very entertaining fighters. I love Chris Leben, but he’s far from elite at this point in his career.

JS: Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen

ML: I think Chael’s going to destroy him, and I think that Chael is the best athlete in that division bar none.

JS: [Randy] Couture vs. [Brock] Lesnar

ML: As much as I think that Brock has a ton of potential in the sport, and I do think that he’s the future and could be unstoppable in a few years, he’s not going to get past Randy’s experience. I was coaching at Nebraska when [Brock] was at Minnesota. I’ve offered to train him, but that offers off the table until he’s done fighting Randy. I think he’s comfortable at home [in Minnesota], and I can certainly empathize with that.