Matt Lindland

Matthew ‘The Law’ Lindland (also nicknamed ‘Woogie’ due to his resemblance to the character in the film ‘There’s Something About Mary’) was born on May 17th, 1970 in Oregon City, Oregon. Matt started his training at 15 when he took up wrestling. He continued to wrestle in semi-professional matches until the age of 30 when he represented the United States in the 2000 Summer Olympics as a Greco-Roman wrestler. Although Lindland lost his final match in the Olympics, it was widely speculated that he was tripped by opponent Keith Sieracki which is disallowed in Greco-Roman wrestling. After a rematch won by Lindland, a Supreme Court ruling and a Circuit Court ruling, Lindland was finally awarded the medal he deserved.

After receiving an invitation to train with the fabled Team Quest, Lindland was easily able to combine his existing wrestling skills with the martial arts he learned from training mates Randy Couture and Dan Henderson. The result was a new style for Lindland, something he refers to as clinch-and-pound. He was easily able to dominate his early competition in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and was quickly offered a shot at the middleweight title. Although he lost that match to Murilo Bustamante, Lindland went on to continue his winning ways in the UFC. That streak ended after a match against David Terrell, a fighter who fans and commentators said had no chance of defeating Lindland. Terrell’s first round knockout took the entire MMA world by surprise.

Lindland’s next match ended in a way that no other UFC match ever had: while attempting to slam opponent Falianiko Vitale, Lindland knocked himself out cold on the mat instead. Not long after, apparently due to a breach of contract in relation to a sponsor, Lindland was dropped entirely from the UFC. Matt soon after signed with the World Fighting Alliance and faced off against Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson in his first match, a bout that Lindland lost by split decision.

While continuing his fighting career, Lindland took the offered position of coach of the Portland Wolfpack, a team of fighters in the International Fight League.

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