Matt Lindland has not signed with HDNet Fights (updated)

I’m not precisely sure how the rumor started, but there’s been some talk on the Internet today that Matt Lindland had signed with HDNet Fights as a fighter. I was contacted by a few readers via e-mail asking me about Lindland’s status.

After contacting two sources, FiveOuncesOfPain.com was informed that the rumors are not true and that Lindland has not signed with HDNet Fights, although neither source was willing to rule out the possibility of a future signing.

HDNet Fights president Guy Mezger confirmed as much on the record.

“We are always talking to Matt about fighting for us,” Mezger responded to an e-mail inquiry from FiveOuncesOfPain.com. “But we have not signed anything nor really even close at this point.”

It’s possible some confusion about Lindland’s status was generated during an interview he did with HDNet Fights during December’s telecast of Lindland’s Oregon-based fight promotion, SportFight. But according to FiveOuncesOfPain.com’s own Adam Morgan, Lindland made it clear that he’s still unsigned as a fighter.

“During the Sportfight broadcast, Lindland did an interview with Ron Kruck where they announced that Sportfight had just inked a deal to be broadcast on HDNet,” said Morgan. “It was a bit misleading at first because it sounded like Lindland had signed with HDNet, but that wasn’t the case.”

Lindland had been signed to a non-exclusive contract with BodogFIGHT, but it now appears he’s out of that deal as well, according to Morgan.

“Kruck asked him (Lindland) when we could plan on seeing him fight again and he mentioned that he’d been released from his contract with Bodog because they didn’t want to pay him the money they owe him,” Morgan said. “They talked about him mentioning to Dana White that he’d like to fight in the UFC and that he’s more or less a free agent and excited to get back in the cage or ring.

“(There was) no mention of signing with HDNet. There’s a miscommunication of facts going on. Sportfight has signed with HDNet to broadcast their fights, Lindland has not signed with them to fight.”