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Interview w/ "The Law" Matt Lindland (part 3)
Reported By: Boxing Insider - 07.04.2003 02:34 AM
PART 3: “Laying Down the “LAW”
Matt, the “LAW,” Lindland talks with Boxing Insider
By Chris Colderley ©
In part 3, Matt talks about the state of the UFC middleweight division and ponders potential future match-ups. He also comments on the evolution of MMA and the contributions of Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture to the sport.
BoxingInsider.com: When can we expect the middleweight belt to be hanging in the Team Quest gym?
Matt Lindland: As soon as they tell me that the belt is on the line. I want to fight for it, and I am going to get it. It’s just a matter of the organization. Like I said, we have a situation where the organization is the governing body. There’s no way to make them say, “OK, it’s been long enough. Murilo hasn’t wanted to defend his title, let’s put the belt out there.”
I still believe I am the number one contender. I lost that fight [against Vitale] for whatever reasons. I still don’t believe that there is anybody out there who can beat me. I believe I knocked myself unconscious. I would like to fight him again. The Fertitta brothers came to the locker room after Randy won, looked at me, and said that’s going to be a rematch [Lindland versus Vitale] at the next show.
I just want to get the bout agreement so I can start training again and get ready for the next fight – move on. I don’t feel like I moved up. I just kind of stayed where I was at. I don’t feel like I moved down either, but I don’t feel like I progressed toward the belt. I don’t feel like there’s a contender out there other than myself.
Photo: TXMMA.com
BoxingInsider.com: That’s true. The division has gone through a many changes with a lot of fighters moving on.
Matt Lindland: There are fighters out there though. If Jeremy Horn gets down to 185 lbs, I think he could definitely be a force. I think there are some guys fighting over in Japan that are really good. There are guys at 170 lbs. that are getting pretty big for that weight class.
BoxingInsider.com: What about the possibility of Matt Hughes moving up?
Photo: MMAWeekly.com
Matt Lindland: He’s a big guy at 170 lbs. I know he cuts hard. I don’t cut. I weigh 191 lbs. and I lose 6 lbs. in the sauna 40 minutes before the weigh-ins. I would love to see Matt at 185 lbs or his team-mate, Robbie Lawler.
BoxingInsider.com: I think Lawler will be out for eight months.
Matt Lindland: Matt [Hughes] is so dominant at 170 lbs; I don’t see why he would have any reason to go to 185 lbs. He would certainly be as much of a force as he is at 170 lbs. I have to believe he’s not too small for 185 lbs. He would be just fine there. But, he’s got the title at 170 lbs, why does he want to go up unless he has to?
There are guys out there though. Benji Radach, who still trains with us sometimes, lost one fight to Sean Sherk by a cut. He wasn’t getting beat or anything. He just got cut and couldn’t continue. He’s now at 185 lbs. I have seen him recently and I trained with him. He would be a force.
They are out there. The UFC just has to go get these guys in their organization and get them fighting.
BoxingInsider.com: Before you go could you provide information about how to contact you for upcoming seminars and camps?
Matt Lindland: If anybody is looking for me or Randy or Dan, when he’s healthy, or any of the Team Quest guys to do camps or seminars, they can contact me at matt@TQFC.com. I do most of the camp and seminar organization and promotion. If anyone is looking for a seminar in their area, Team Quest has some coming up. I am trying to schedule out on the East coast, and I would like to do more than a couple . . . If I travel out there, I definitely want to do more than one seminar.
I know Randy is going to take a little time off, so he has some availability to do seminars as well. He has to be the hottest clinician out there right now. People would just as much like to see Randy’ wrestling techniques and his ground work as they would his stand-up. He’s going to have to come out with a whole new video series – the stand up fighting series for Randy Couture.
BoxingInsider.com: When Maurice Smith beat Mark Coleman, it was, “How a striker can beat a grappler?” Now, it seems, Randy has turned all that on its head: “How a grappler stands up with a striker.”
Matt Lindland: The sport, to me, seems to go in cycles. When the Gracies started this thing, it was that submission stuff that Royce was doing. Man, there’s something to that! He was taking out some big dudes. Then we had guys like Mark Coleman, Don Frye, and even Dan Severn back then, and everyone was asking, “How are we going to stop the wrestlers?” They were taking submission guys down and just pounding them. Then all of a sudden, it was the strikers. When Maurice Smith came in, everyone thought the strikers had figured it out.
I think Chuck [Liddell] is one of the guys that started all this. He’s a wrestler. He wrestled in Division I, college level. He’s a good wrestler, there’s no doubt, but nobody thinks of Chuck Liddell as a wrestler. They think of him as a striker. I think people still think of Randy Couture as a wrestler. But, now I think many will say he’s a well-rounded fighter. He’s the first guy I don’t think you can define anymore. You can’t say Randy is a wrestler. He’s a mixed martial artist now.
I think the sport is evolving so fast right now that everybody has to be well rounded in every aspect of the sport, and they have to find their own style too. I don’t think Randy is a boxer – I wouldn’t like to see him in K1 right now. I definitely think he can stand with any mixed martial artist. It’s a difficult sport. It’s not the same sport. People don’t necessarily realize that the style of striking is not the same style of striking when there are not the other elements involved. [In K1], the takedown is not there. It’s just a different style of striking [in MMA] and that has evolved already too.
BoxingInsider.com: Matt, thank you very much for your time. Best of luck, I am expecting you to do great things.
Matt Lindland: Chris, thank you very much.
TQFC.com - The Official site of Matt Lindland and Team Quest.
Chris Colderley is a freelance writer and a boxinginsider.com contributor.
Chris Colderley can be reached at colderley@hotmail.com
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