… is simply because UFC President Dana White doesn’t like him, according to John Hackleman — “The Pit” boss and long-time trainer of Chuck Liddell — in a recent interview with FightHype.com.
Here’s a snip:
“It’s just one thing, Dana doesn’t like him. If Dana doesn’t like you he’s like a kid, ‘it’s my playground you can’t play anymore.’ It’s not about business because he doesn’t need business. He’s got like billionaire best friends that gives him all of the money he needs, so it’s not about that it’s just about personality.”
“The Law” — who is in the midst of a heated race for the Oregon House of Representatives in District 52 as a Republican — has not competed inside the Octagon since 2005. He was released from his contract after wearing and “unapproved” t-shirt at the weigh-ins prior to that bout against Joe Doerksen at UFC 54: “Boiling Point.”
However, it is widely speculated that the promotion used it as an excuse to cut him loose. He was deemed (if you ask Lindland) too much of a threat to eventual poster boy and newly-minted 185-pound champion, Rich Franklin.
“Ace” was pretty and marketable … Lindland not so much.
Regardless, Lindland remains one of the top middleweight mixed martial artists in the world and will next take on Fabio Negao at Affliction: “Banned” from the Honda Center in Sacramento, Calif., on July 19.
50 Comments »
I think Rich would make short work of Lindland… even back then.
to be honest i dont think matt linland was any threat to franklin at all…i mean he lost to david terrell…not take anything away form him..got beat by a guy that had to answer to evan tanner standing or on the ground!
Lindland is the LAW, and he will RULE you, along with Chael Sonnen!
Eh Lindland is a boring fighter, I never really liked watching his… wrestle his way to a victory.. but yet I like Sean Sherk… thats weird.
Hack has the inside scoop on Dana White. Dana & Chuck are very close as we all know. Pretty frank words from John if I do say so myself. I was a little suprised to hear them considering his close relationship with Dana and the UFC, but then again, John is nobodys bitch. The guy used to beat up Chuck on a regular basis during their first few years together. He is one bad mofo.
WOW! if chuck’s trainer is saying this about dana you know it’s true , we all know i,
but this is hard evidence of the misjustices going on in the ufc … the way that the more popular fighters get to fight .
like jardine beat chuck and jardine beat forrest but forrest get to fight page for the belt …this is a bull s. way to have a legit organization.
the fighters need to be ranked according to who they have beaten and a ladder in each weight class has to be determined.
DAna stinks
GoRandy: I could not agree more, ut please change your name. Couture does not deserve any fans! Old Greedy Prick!
WOW, “COUTURE DOES NOT DERSERVE ANY FANS”, ARE YOU NUTS, DUDE, SOME FIGHTERS ARE MAKING A KILLING, THIS GUY IS IN HIS FORTY WHOOPING SOME YOUNGSTERS A**, COME ON NOW, DON’T HATE AND GIVE THE GUY AND HIS RESPECT AND LET HIM GET PAID… I THINK HE CAN TAKE ANY HEAVY WEIGHT ON… UFC , HAS PLENTY OF MONEY AND IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE START GETTING PAID LIKE THE TOP CONTENDERS IN BOXING…. BOXING IS ON IT’S WAY OUT AND MMA IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING… THE WILL BE MUCH BIGGER THEN IT ALREADY IS…ALSO, I AGREE ON THE RATE SYSTEM~!!
Dude it is to hard to rate it by who you have beaten. I know that its preferred but people lose to each other then beat another guy, unless your undefeated your authority on the top will be questioned. Unless you are GSP or Silva people will question if you really are the best, and on top of that having more than one organization screws that up to. Seriously it just goes by who the fans want to see fight. What would be the most exciting fight? Easy enough a slug fest, a grudge match, a poster boy. Honestly its not fair to the fighters but it is incredibly hard to rank these guys with out the rankings being questioned. Go ahead and post your top 10 ranks for each weight class and watch people completely disagree. Your hearts in the right place but your head isn’t
back when he was in the ufc i agreed he was a top middleweight, arguably top 3 in the world, but it’s been awhile since i’ve seen lindland be impressive. it would be nice to see him back in the mix against guys his own weight class and of a respectable caliber, but until he gets over on somebody currently top 10 or even 5 i have a hard time putting him at the upper echelon. and he is definitely uglier than a 5 dollar crack whore’s crotch. ever since rampage said he had bad breath i look at the guy and he just looks like he has nasty ass breath…i bet his breath smells like the worst shit morning breath ever.
Lindland would own Franklin. And just looking how well he did against (Jackson) who would also crush Franklin should alleviate the worry that he’s a boring fighter. His fight with Jackson and the short fight with Fedor prove different.
Lindland would handle franklin easy, If lutter wasnt a 1round fighter he would have probably beat him.
to be honest i dont think matt linland was any threat to franklin at all…i mean he lost to david terrell…not take anything away form him..got beat by a guy that had no answer to evan tanner standing or on the ground! and your statement about lutter makes no sense…lutter went farther with linland than franklin did… and lutter went the distance with trevor prangley. there is no such thing as “ifs” or “buts” in mma! and linland is a dick..sore loser!
I think it’s safe to say that Dana isn’t the only one who doesn’t like Matt Lindland.
Apparently a true comment, I’ve read lots of rumors that Lindland is a total dick in the gym and he really does have bad body odor!…
Also here’s a snip of what the Associated press had to say about Linland biting a wrestlers ear in the olympic trials:
“The Associated Press, showed Lindland making a deliberate move toward Sieracki’s right ear as the two wrestlers jostle for leverage. Sieracki immediately jumped back in protest, and close-up footage showed a small amount of blood coming from the ear.
Sieracki, a military police sergeant stationed at the Fort Carson Army post, won the match by 2-1 on a referee’s decision. USA Wrestling committees upheld that decision, but an arbitrator ordered a rematch after Lindland said that he had been illegally tripped. Lindland won the rematch, 8-0. ”I didn’t hook the legs,” Sieracki said. ”It was incidental contact. On top of that, he bit my ear and should have been disqualified. The ear bite is a lot more apparent compared to the leg call.”
LINDLAND’S A DICKHEAD!!!
good stuff!
Nice post. I’m sure I’ll get hated on but I like Dana’s judgement. Honestly its hot heads that he doesn’t like, he doesn’t get pissed at the guys who actually fight to get where they are. It would seem that every guy he doesn’t like is a guy with a totaly characteristic flaw ie Tito. I can’t stand Tito and I don’t care to see him fight, Lindland on the other hand really is an A class fighter but if what you said is true he’s a prick. The only way I would change my mind is if Dana was being a prick to a fighter who put up good fights and didn’t talk like he himself was MMA. I know people like to say Dana thinks he himself is MMA but Dana doesn’t fight, he promotes, its his job to try and make fans love the sport. Dana has a prick attitude also but I don’t pay to see Dana talk ever.
I can’t really say he came off as being such a threat to Rich Franklin that they felt they had to cut him to protect Ace. That’s just my opinion though.
Khaos, Lutter wasn’t going to sub Franklin at all and it wasn’t just because he had bad cardio. Getting punched in the face several dozen times will destroy your will/cardio.
Franklin would TKO/KO Lindland.
WOW! if chuck’s trainer is saying this about dana you know it’s true , we all know it but this is hard evidence of the misjustices going on in the ufc the way that the more popular fighters get to fight .
like jardine beat chuck and jardine beat forrest but forrest get to fight page for the belt …this is a bull s. way to have a legit organization.
the fighters need to be ranked according to who they have beaten and a ladder in each weight class has to be determined.
DAna is a fat Cat!!!!
I HOPE THE UFC WAKES UP!
they can stop promoting their BRAND ufc and start getting better fighters and more of the fights on the card, as soon they will slip into boxing…one good fight only for 50.00
i really like mcdonalds but sometimes i want a burger from the king too
compitition is better for mma not total co#k blocking like dana white he is a little boy with wealthy friends thats it.
one can do anything with money and will but dana gotta go start a petition or enter sum new compition affliction looks great!!!!
In-N-Out Burger is awesome, Fat Burger is a close second!
lol @ GORANDY
Yeah Jardine beat Forrest and Liddell, but you forget he got knocked out by Houston, which really set him back. Forrest is coming off two solid wins with one of them being over Shogun.
Also the UFC is the only organization that actually makes the best fight the best and in a way, that creates its own rankings, Unlike EXC or any other major promotion.
And who cares if John says that about Dana. Everyone hates somebody. You apparently hate Dana, I guess that makes you just as low as him.
um excuse me for having an opinion !!!!!
i’m not as low as hack! wtf?
hack is not low
dana is the majority of people think so!!!!
I don’t know what you’re talking about as far as compitition. That’s not at all what this story is about and it’s not like there isn’t compitition out there for the UFC. You’ve got the very, very rich Mark Cuban with his HD stuff, and the deep pockets of showtime running EXC. So don’t be saying that Dana is the only rich one.
dana is not rich really
those two brother casino owners are the ones that have the nevada state athl . commission in their hands.
the frititta totta bro’s will fire dana white eventually
I DOUBT IT, (FIRING DANA) , HE HAS WAY TO MUCH DIRT ON THEM… HE IS PART OF THE UFC CREW THAT WAS THERE WHEN THEY BOUGHT THE UFC FOR ONLY 2 MILLION AND NOW ITS WORTH A BILLION… DANA IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE…. I JUST WISH HE WOULD STOP ACTING LIKE A GANGSTER AND PAY THE GUYS WHAT THEY ARE WORTH, MEANING THE TOP CONTENDERS THAT SHOW UP TO FIGHT…
does anyone know why dana dislikes lindland so much? dana seems to dislike jacob just as much for a long while, and that hasnt stopped him from letting him fight in the ufc. could it be from drawing power as well? lindland isnt quite as marketable is he. dana’s no dummy.
maybe because Lidland doesn’t shower before fights so he stinks to be around, which would mean he would be pretty hard to send out for interviews and press conferences.
Stinky stuff.
I can’t wait for the Dana-nuthuggers to start justifying this.
Dang if your gonna post here like once a year, you should probably post something more meaningful then that.
You’re right, I kinda posted it before going to sleep and couldn’t resist going into Bashing-Dana-Mode when I saw the posting.
Then again, if this is really the only reason why we haven’t seen The Law back in the UFC its utterly ridiculous. He’s a Top-5 middleweight in my book and I’d love to see him in the UFC simply because they got the strongest middleweight division so far.
Matt Lidland, isn’t the gross fool that doesn’t shake a shower for two weeks before a match? Keep his smelly ass out of UFC.
i reckon rich would take him out even tho getting destroyed to near death by the spider twice
Well, you can’t hold Anderson Silva against Franklin to be honest. He’s considered by many the best Pound-for-Pound fighter in the world right now and I think its just a bad match for Franklin.
Every fighter has a bad matchup, that probably will never work for them. I don’t see Couture ever beating Liddell for example (0-2), Barnett will never beat Cro-Cop (0-3) and Franklin never A.Silva (0-2). That doesn’t mean those guys are sub-par, its just a bad matchup.
Rich Franklin is a great fighter, but maybe he should give the long-rumoured move to 205lbs a try.
chuck vs randy is actually (1-2)… i think randy could take that fight 3/10 times… you forgot to mention rampage vs chuck (2-0)… the second time was fast… but the first time he beat him up bad in an all out war!!!
Agree with haimophiliac, although I’d give Randy 4 out of 10.
what about chuck vs randy at hw. i think randy wins at that weight. thats another guy randy could have fought, instead of saying he has no competition at hw.
This is silly!!! Ace went up against Anderson Silva(second fight in UFC they had every right to make him wait at least 1 yr) and got destroyed. Anderson was a much bigger threat to Ace then the “Law” and he doesn’t even speak english(not that there is anything wrong with that just from a promoting stand point). Then he goes and fights him again and gets mauled again! How is this protecting Ace? Dana has every right to hire and fire who the heck he wants too. If you go for a job interview, it really doesn’t matter how qualified you are, the big factor is wether or not the person giving the interview LIKES YOU OR NOT.
yeah… but the Spider has one of the most if not the most exciting fighting style in all of MMA… along with Chuck and Fedor… and your argument will move MMA towards boxing and all the issues there… do you want to see who the best fighter out there is or the most exciting fighter?
MMA fans want to see the best fight the best… not who dana likes to watch vs someone else dana likes to watch. Lindland would own franklin.
Well spoken my friend but since when is the “Law” this good?
Did anyone else pick up on the fact that those responses didn’t typically sound like things that would come out of John’s mouth. I’ve read alot of interviews with John and that one didn’t sound like him at all. I’m calling BS.
Yeah, Dana sucks. I mean, look at what he’s done to the UFC. When he took over, it was bankrupt, had no tv or mainstream media coverage, and they did a couple PPVs a year that a few people purchased.
Now, they’re do a dozen PPVs a year, they’re on television every week, they have the greatest fighters in the world competeing against each other in the ring (instead of in hypothetical conversations), and they’re the fastest growing sport in the world.
If you don’t like Dana - awesome! But stop pretending he hasn’t been the greatest thing to happen to MMA in this country. If not for him, the UFC would probably not exist anymore. The guy is a loudmouth, yes, but I watch the UFC for the fights, and Dana’s never in the ring. If you hate him so much, stop freaking watching the UFC. That’ll show him!
Have fun watching Dream, knuckleheads.
Very good points.
Although you have to admit that if Dana forces the best fighters out of the UFC w/ his bias then he is NOT doing his job. And that does affect the quality of the UFC as in terms of product.
Overall, I agree with you.
Hey linland….join the same world tito and randy are living in now!
I’d have to agree there. Dana does act like a kid at times, and somewhat like a woman that will hold a grudge against you until the end of days. I hope Affliction does well for that reason.
Rich kicks his ass!
who cares the Law is 1 of the most overrated fighters in the Mwt div. every time he fought some one good he couldn’t finish and left the fight in the judges hands.the 4 best fighters that he had finished are Jeremy Horn , Travis Lutter , Carlos Newton and Pat Miletich. the last 2 are WWts. IMO he is a poor mans Hendo. i think that ACE could beat either 1 of these 2.
I think its funny people think that Lindland would own Franklin. It’s not like Yushin, Tanner, MacDonald, Lutter, Dewees could do anything to Rich. what makes you guys think that Matt could get him down and destroy him?
heck, I think Frank Shamrock would beat Lindland.
I am a friend of Matts son and he says he will not be fighting in the UFC but instead is fighting in october of 08 for an organization cannot give the name of right now.