Matt Lindland and UFC President Dana White Meet

Matt lindland possibly coming back to the UFC

The first, albeit tiny, steps toward middleweight Matt Lindland’s return to the UFC were taken last week when Lindland spoke to UFC president Dana White.

White said he is “not sure” of whether Lindland will return. In a text message, he wrote, “He told me he wants to come back, and I haven’t thought about it at all.“

i think it would be great if linland comes back into the UFC, it will add alot more excitment and diversity into a division that seems a bit weak....but with Middleweight TUF coming soon, and Fighter like A.Silva, Dan Henderson, Matt Lindland, Franklin, Marquardt, okami, kampman the middle weight divison will be under the spotlight for 08

i for one hope he comes back, if they get him and tanner back, coupled with the MW TUF season it shows they are doing something to improve the depth in their weakest weight class. i really hope dana swallows his pride on this one.

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Posted by cowcatcher

i for one hope he comes back, if they get him and tanner back, coupled with the MW TUF season it shows they are doing something to improve the depth in their weakest weight class. i really hope dana swallows his pride on this one.

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yea defenately, i think dana should put away the his personal feelings and see whats best for the UFC and what the fans want to see...

he is a def NECESSITY considering his talent and the UFCs lack there of in that division

Him, Kang, and Filho would be a nice addition to the division IMO.

This is going to be cool. Hopefully the sign him, he's very highly rated.

I have mixed opinions about this...

Thesides Lindland beating Baroni twice, the only thing I recall from Lindland being in the UFC was when he knocked himself out against Niko and when Terrell knocked him out in like a minute. He's a great fighter, I give him respect for taking on Fedor and I do think it's ridiculous for getting fired for wearing that t-shirt (if thats true) but... I don't see him really being an addition to the UFC. I think all the top MW fighters like Franklin, Silva, and Marquardt would beat him.

On the flip side why bring him in when he would run through Cote, Belcher, Grove, Mcfedries, and Terry Martin. So what's the point of bringing in a guy who would wipe out your lower competition and lose to the better competition.

Plus fights with Ed Herman, Hendo, and Quarry would probably never happen since they currently train of previously trained together.

This is a tough one because the MW division needs to be shaken up but I'm not quite sure Matt Lindland is the guy to do it.

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Posted by juanez13

i think it would be great if linland comes back into the UFC, it will add alot more excitment and diversity into a division that seems a bit weak....but with Middleweight TUF coming soon, and Fighter like A.Silva, Dan Henderson, Matt Lindland, Franklin, Marquardt, okami, kampman the middle weight divison will be under the spotlight for 08

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i hope he comes back.. and you may very well be right. also ... I'm not a fan of bispbing AT ALL. but you never know with him dropping down.. that could add a good bit to the grey area (not the best but not worst)

also... to "shake Up" the MW Div. it'll take anderson silva getting beat or almost beat.. so that ppl see that he is human haha

I think this would be a very wise decision. Most people, including myself, have a very cloudy memory of the whole t-shirt fiasco. If the ufc resigned babalu, you could make the arguement that it would say something about the character of the organization.. but it's been 3 years since lindland has fought in the ufc, and it was for something far less serious.

The lack of talent in the middleweight division has been something brought up over and over for the past year, especially with the increase in talent from other organizations. The ufc does have some good young fighters in that division.. but the gap between the champ and no1 contender gives us this idea that we only have 1 good fighter. This is the one division that the ufc doesnt have a strangle hold on when it comes to the world top10, so making moves to remedy that problem would probably make everyone happy.

The ufc owns the WEC right? why not take filho and throw him into the title picture? He's #2 in on a lot of people's list, and I thought the ufc was all about putting the best against the best.

Kang will likely not compete in the ufc for a long time if ever, his cultural ties to spiritMC are too important to him.. but with ninja rua now training in the states.. and his brother already in the ufc.. perhaps another rua brother could deepen the pool?

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Posted by kevietre

I have mixed opinions about this...

Thesides Lindland beating Baroni twice, the only thing I recall from Lindland being in the UFC was when he knocked himself out against Niko and when Terrell knocked him out in like a minute. He's a great fighter, I give him respect for taking on Fedor and I do think it's ridiculous for getting fired for wearing that t-shirt (if thats true) but... I don't see him really being an addition to the UFC. I think all the top MW fighters like Franklin, Silva, and Marquardt would beat him.

On the flip side why bring him in when he would run through Cote, Belcher, Grove, Mcfedries, and Terry Martin. So what's the point of bringing in a guy who would wipe out your lower competition and lose to the better competition.

Plus fights with Ed Herman, Hendo, and Quarry would probably never happen since they currently train of previously trained together.

This is a tough one because the MW division needs to be shaken up but I'm not quite sure Matt Lindland is the guy to do it.

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Matt is an Olympic silver medalist(in 2000), has wins over Carlos Newton, Jeremy Horn, Travis Lutter, Joe Doerkson, Baroni x2, and Pat Militich, as well as a SD loss to Rampage. He also has the style to give Anderson a decent fight which we have not seen yet. I'd say he's very worthy and disagree with you saying all the top MW's would beat him.

Well i like lindland an think he would bring more the to the UFC alwasy can use more is my motto an he has had some good fights and he is one of the top 10 in the world i would say

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Posted by kevietre

I have mixed opinions about this...

Thesides Lindland beating Baroni twice, the only thing I recall from Lindland being in the UFC was when he knocked himself out against Niko and when Terrell knocked him out in like a minute. He's a great fighter, I give him respect for taking on Fedor and I do think it's ridiculous for getting fired for wearing that t-shirt (if thats true) but... I don't see him really being an addition to the UFC. I think all the top MW fighters like Franklin, Silva, and Marquardt would beat him.

On the flip side why bring him in when he would run through Cote, Belcher, Grove, Mcfedries, and Terry Martin. So what's the point of bringing in a guy who would wipe out your lower competition and lose to the better competition.

Plus fights with Ed Herman, Hendo, and Quarry would probably never happen since they currently train of previously trained together.

This is a tough one because the MW division needs to be shaken up but I'm not quite sure Matt Lindland is the guy to do it.

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I kind of agree, i think most of the top guys would beable to beat him tbh, but your point about him running through the lower guys but not being able to beat the top is kinda like rich franklins situation, hes shown he can dominate the MW division, but he cant beat anderson. So by what your saying, rich shouldnt be in the ufc. I think this applies to alot of other solid fighters who definatly deserve to be in the ufc aswell.

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Posted by kevietre

I have mixed opinions about this...

Thesides Lindland beating Baroni twice, the only thing I recall from Lindland being in the UFC was when he knocked himself out against Niko and when Terrell knocked him out in like a minute. He's a great fighter, I give him respect for taking on Fedor and I do think it's ridiculous for getting fired for wearing that t-shirt (if thats true) but... I don't see him really being an addition to the UFC. I think all the top MW fighters like Franklin, Silva, and Marquardt would beat him.

On the flip side why bring him in when he would run through Cote, Belcher, Grove, Mcfedries, and Terry Martin. So what's the point of bringing in a guy who would wipe out your lower competition and lose to the better competition.

Plus fights with Ed Herman, Hendo, and Quarry would probably never happen since they currently train of previously trained together.

This is a tough one because the MW division needs to be shaken up but I'm not quite sure Matt Lindland is the guy to do it.

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Did you see his fight with Rampage? He got robbed by the judges. Everyone I show the fight to agrees Lindland clearly won as he did much more to try to finish the fight, and was close to doing so a couple times.

Lindland was a good fighter in his first run in the UFC, but he is a far better fighter now. He is also a finisher, look at his fights the last couple years, he rarely lets his fights go to the judges.

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Posted by bayonetxwork

Him, Kang, and Filho would be a nice addition to the division IMO.

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Filho said he is only fighting at mw because thats the weight class that the wec brought him in for. If he went to the ufc, i'm sure he'd head up to lhw. Filho and wandy would be an old school rivalry. Chute boxe and BTT.

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Posted by kevietre

He's a great fighter, I give him respect for taking on Fedor and I do think it's ridiculous for getting fired for wearing that t-shirt (if thats true) but... I don't see him really being an addition to the UFC.

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what shirt would that be? never mind, i found it

Signing him might be contingent on who wins Hendo-Silva. He might not be willing to fight Henderson and it would probably be a dull fight.

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Posted by kevietre

On the flip side why bring him in when he would run through Cote, Belcher, Grove, Mcfedries, and Terry Martin. So what's the point of bringing in a guy who would wipe out your lower competition and lose to the better competition.

Plus fights with Ed Herman, Hendo, and Quarry would probably never happen since they currently train of previously trained together.

This is a tough one because the MW division needs to be shaken up but I'm not quite sure Matt Lindland is the guy to do it.

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I disagree completely with what you said. I'd rather watch Lindland that any of the above-mentioned TUFers or rather average Martin and McFedries. Having said that, I love watching Cote and Grove. McFedries is one of my favorite fighters too. I don't think they should be released by the UFC just because they are not likely to win a title any time soon.

Matt Lindland can give Anderson Silva a run for his money.

here is the shirt Lindland wore at the weigh in that he got fired over.