Issue 169

August 2018

Former fighter Matt Lindland, who later tried his hand at politics, picks five of his best battles.

1. Ricardo Almeida, UFC 31

When I fought him he was one of the top guys in the weight class. That was a really fun fight. It was early in my career. I think it was my second UFC fight and I was fighting a guy with a lot of fights under his belt. Because a lot of winning has happened in both of our careers that is what makes this fight significant. He was getting his ass kicked and wanted a way out. That’s all it was. He was warned if he kicked me in the head again while I was on the ground that they were going to end the fight. He must have thought ‘OK, great. I can kick him in the head one more time.’ I think the scorecards were already in my favor even before that last foul he hit.

2. Vitor Belfort, Affliction: Day of Reckoning

He has had a lot of success during his career. He was a world champion in a number of weight classes during his career. That is pretty

impressive. I knew what he was capable of doing and he was able to execute his game plan really well, really early on in the fight. He got the early knockout and that’s just how it goes sometimes.

3. Robbie Lawler, Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu 2

This fight has to be on the list. He was just a really talented young kid coming up and he kept building his way to the top. What happened in our fight is what happened. That was toward the tail end of my career, I think it was my next to last fight. I have to go with Robbie. I love the way he fights. I enjoy watching him compete. We were contemporaries but he started so damn young in his career! We had a chance to spend some time around each other over the years and I really respect what he’s about.

4. Phil Baroni, UFC 34 and UFC 41

I have to throw Baroni on this list. Besides the fact that he is a hell of a fighter, I don’t think anybody in that era knew how to promote and market fights as much as we did. We sold those two fights without websites putting videos out or the UFC doing their own marketing and promotions and pre-fight build-up. We sold those fights on our own. We drew big crowds both times. We put on a hell of a show both times. I have a lot of respect for Phil for getting in there twice. Both times, we had great promotion, great fights and good entertainment for the fans. You have to have Phil on that list. He had some great one-liners but if you go back and look, I had some fucking great ones, too! I love doing that. I love the promotion. It’s great to have an adversary who is a partner in the marketing and promotion. It’s not like we talked to each other about it. It wasn’t manufactured. It was real heat but it was still respectful in the martial arts aspect of things. We got heat but at the end of the day we are both martial artists who want to compete, who want to fight and want to put on a good show for the fans.

5. Pat Miletich, UFC 36

That is the first one that pops to mind right off the bat. He was a world champion. He was a great competitor and someone I looked up to and respected a great deal. I had a good game plan and I executed it well. That’s really what it was. He was an incredible fighter and I had a load of respect for him but we were going to fight. We were going to see who was better. I went out there and got the stoppage via TKO and showed that I was better that night.