From the Championship to the Statehouse: MMAOpinion Talks to Matt Lindland (Part 2)

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 52, 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: So, you are running on the Republican ticket. It’s been pretty hard, the last few years, to run as a Republican. President Bush’s approval rating was the highest in history [of any President] after the war in Iraq was declared, and it’s now at the lowest in history. That, with the rash of scandals, are making it harder. Have you had any issues with that?

Matt Lindland: People are fickle, they’re always looking for an easy answer. It just goes back to that attitude. What are you going to do now? These guys come to my gym and think they wanna be professional fighters, like it’s gonna happen overnight, and I tell them, this is gonna take a while. People have this attitude of entitlement, both in fighting and in politics.

JS: How do you feel about the war in Iraq?

ML: I’m not a big fan of going outside of our country. The rules that our founders gave were some pretty strict guidelines, to protect our freedoms and our liberties. And maybe, if there are terrorist attacks, we should go over there, but it’s a hard choice.

The individual is the basic unit. The individual is what makes up the society, not the other way around. Without the individual rights, there is no society.

JS: After surfing through your campaign website [mattfororegon.com], it seems like you’re pretty much running on an economic platform. Is that right?

ML: I would say that’s the most pressing issue for Oregonians, and I think that nationwide it’s the most pressing issue. In this economy, it seems like the only jobs that are appearing are government, and you’ve got to pay taxes for those jobs. It costs a lot of money, and they get that money for us.

With this kind of big government, we have a lot of parasites, and a lot of people feel like “government’s got that handled,” but it doesn’t always do that, and what we fail to realize is that the problems aren’t being fixed, and it hurts us most in the small communities like I live in. It’s a nationwide problem, and the government wants more money to feed their machine and we’re hurting. It’s not big businesses that hurt, because they have money, but it’s hard for the small businesses. It really is the pressing issue of our day.

JS: You do talk a lot about “improving the educational system” on your site. How do you plan on doing that?

ML: 60% of the budget in Oregon goes to the public schools, and there are better ways to track those dollars. We’re not just going to abolish the public school system, because we need to educate our children.

I have two kids and I understand the importance of education. For me, it’s a huge sacrifice to take them out of public schools and put them into a private school, but I’m not going to let somebody else to control the education of my children, whether its government or some organization that I’m not involved in.

We need to send money into the classroom, but we need to take responsibility. Whether it’s with tax credits and private schooling, I think there are better ways to improve the school system.

JS: Anything particularly challenging in the race?

ML: I think the biggest challenge in this race is the fundraising, and I think if we can let people know that it does take money to win these races, then we can get people to go to the website.

JS: You’ve been really busy, even off the campaign trail. What else do you have going on?

ML: I just started my own radio show in Portland. I believe we’re the first network station to run an MMA show, though I’m not sure about that. That’s on 95.5 the Game. Chael and I also do a local television show a lot like that old Pride broadcast that had [Joe] Glazer and [Frank] Trigg.

JS: So now, a few quick questions. Do you have a favorite President?

ML: Ronald Reagan

JS: How ‘bout a favorite Congressman?

ML: Ron Paul. I voted for him in the primary.

JS: Favorite Supreme Court Justice?

ML: Nah.

JS: It sounds like you’re a constitutionalist?

ML: I believe our founders understood what they were doing, and I think you have to understand the Federalist papers to appreciate the constitution. I believe in the Bible and I believe in the constitution of the United States of America.

JS: Well, thanks for doing this interview, man.

ML: Anytime.