Now that Rampage has been formally charged with felony evasion, reckless driving, and driving down the wrong side of the street stemming from his police chase after the loss to Forrest Griffin last month the question has become if and when Rampage will fight again this year. According to Dana White, he’ll fight this year and it’s looking like it could be as early as November 15 according to this Yahoo! Sports report:

“Of course he’ll fight,” White said. “If he was doing drugs, if he had been drunk, if he had gone out there and done what he did because he was pissed off at someone, that would be a completely different story. But he was ill. And in this company, we support our friends and anyone who works for us when they’re ill and have problems. He was ill, the incident occurred, and now he’s fine.

“Rampage feels awful about the woman’s baby, but he had nothing to do with it. And the (traffic incident) occurred because he was very ill and not with him in control of his faculties.”

The report also states that Wanderlei Silva is unlikely to be Rampage’s opponent. The question then becomes who will he fight? There has been much speculation of a possible rematch with Shogun Rua although Rua continues to claim that he will make his return to the Octagon in December. If Silva isn’t likely to fight Rampage and Rua can’t return until December then who does that leave? Or does Rua try to return a month earlier than he expected? Stay tuned.

While speaking with the Brazilian website Tatame.com, UFC light heavyweight competitor Mauricio “Shogun” Rua revealed that he’ll be returning to the Octagon in December.

“I’ll be back in December,” Rua told Tatame. “They said that I might fight with Quinton Jackson, but nothing has been signed yet. They called me ad offered a fight with him and I accepted, but they didn’t say anything else more.”

Rua has not competed since UFC 76 last Sept. 22 in Anaheim, Calif. due to a knee injury that required two surgical procedures. However, he recently resumed workouts in preparation for his December return.

“I’m back to training,” he’s quoted. “I’m doing some Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu stuff, and thank God everything is fine now.”

In his UFC debut at UFC 76, Rua lost to underdog and current UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin when he submitted to a rear naked choke at 4:45 of round three. Despite the loss, the former team member of the famed Chute Boxe Academy in Brazil is still considered a top-ten light heavyweight by virtually every major rankings poll.

Republican House of Representatives candidate and - of course - highly respected middleweight Matt Lindland believes there is something very wrong with the contracts from MMA’s top organization.

The UFC contracts are illegal. Based on the Muhammad Ali (Safety) Act, you cannot be the promoter and the manager at the same time,” Lindland said, “If they are telling you who and when you are going to fight, they are the manager as well as the promoter.”

I am definitely not a lawyer so it is hard to fully judge the validity of the statement, but in reading the Act, Lindland does make a few good points on how much control an organization can have over a fighter.

Lindland also said that one fighter in particular is planning to test the Act in court.

I believe that is what Randy (Couture) is saying as well.”

If you’d like to read the document, please click here.

Affliction middleweight fighter Matt Lindland was victorious during Tuesday’s Republican primary for the Oregon House of Representatives in the 52nd district, according to the Oregonian.

A silver medalist during the 2000 Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling, Lindland defeated Phyllis Thiemann in Oregon’s 52nd district, which entails most of the Mt. Hood area.

According to KATU.com, Lindland won in decisive fashion, garnering 57% of the vote in comparison to Thiemann’s 43%. A total of 2,410 registered Republicans came out to support Lindland, while Thiemann recorded 1,803 votes.

Lindland will now move onto the general election, where he will take on the winner of the Democratic primary, Suzanne VanOrman.

VanOrman won her nomination in overwhelming fashion by registering 82% of the total votes cast. A total of 5,468 Democrats turned out to register their vote for VanOrman.

Josh Gross, over at SI.com, is reporting that a fight between Matt Lindland and Fabio Negao is close to being a done deal for Affliction’s inaugural show on July 19:

However, SI.com learned Tuesday that the leading candidate to face the gangly wrestler is Brazilian middleweight Fabio Negao, owner of an 8-3 record. Splitting his last six bouts, Negao is coming off a loss in December to Rousimar Palhares, as well as two other defeats by Demian Maia (choke) and Ray Lazama (KO). South African middleweight Trevor Prangley had been discussed as a potential Lindland foe, but Affliction’s decision to pit Lindland against Negao appears close to final.

While I would much rather see Lindland face off against a David Terrell or a Trevor Prangley, Negao will have to do.

Matt Lindland is a busy man these days. He’s a fighter; a trainer; and a promoter. And if all goes according to plan, he could become a State House Representative in Oregon.

Lindland, running as a conservative republican, recently launched his campaign, which you can find out more about at MattForOregon.com. In the meantime, Lindland was kind enough to take out for an exclusive interview with FiveOuncesOfPain.com.

During the interview, Lindland was very candid on his thoughts about the state of Oregon; the IFL’s current direction; and his appraisal of the MMA media that included some intriguing allegations regarding UFC president Dana White and his behavior towards members of the media.

The full transcript of our one-on-one interview with Lindland is available below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Matt Lindland has confirmed that his next fight will be for the upstart Affliction promotion on July 19 in Dallas, Texas.

Lindland made the announcement during Friday night’s telecast of SportFight XXII, which was televised on HDNet.

When asked by reporter Ron Kruck about who he would be fighting, Lindland indicated that while the names of several fighters have been tossed around, an opponent has yet to sign a contract to fight him. Kruck responded by asking Lindland who he’d like to fight, and he then proceeded to mention both former UFC middleweight champion Murilo Bustamante as well as David Terrell, another former UFC middleweight.

There had been rumors that Lindland would face Frank Trigg during Affliction’s debut show but the fight has never been confirmed by either fighter.

Affliction’s debut show will be headlined by a heavyweight fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia. The fight was first reported several weeks ago by Sherdog.com but is now official, according to a recent report by MMAWeekly.com.

In addition to Emelianenko vs. Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell, and Aleksander Emelianenko are all rumored to be fighting on the card. However, no official announcement has been made regarding the involvement of any of the four fighters.

According to MMA Weekly, Matt Lindland has signed a three fight contract with a new MMA promotion yet to be named:

He dispelled rumors that he had signed with the new Dream promotion in Japan, saying, “I’ve never talked to them. I actually did sign a contract (Friday) with another company, though.”

Because of the sensitive nature of the promotion he has signed with, Lindland stopped short of saying who the new company is.

“I’m kind of holding off. I sent an email saying, ‘when can we make announcements?’ I can tell you I signed a very nice contract for three fights within the next twelve months,” he informed.

Lindland also had to take a parting shot at the UFC and their payscale:

“Everybody makes a big deal about not fighting in the UFC. I can tell you, I signed a contract and my first fight I’m going to make more than I made in like six fights in the UFC,” he stated. “The most I ever made in the UFC with the win bonus and the show money was $36,000. “

Lindland is one of the best middleweight fighters in the world and the UFC either couldn’t or wouldn’t nab him up. I know Lindland isn’t the most exciting fighter in the world but then again, neither is Yushin Okami, right?

I hope Lindland has chosen wisely when deciding which promotion to put his trust into. There are so many nickel and dimers in this business who will use fighters, not pay them, ask them to fight for free and tear up their contracts on the spot and “agree” to be paid later (see: WCO), or people who don’t know how to manage any kind of money at all. There’s a new MMA promotion starting every other day who either have one show and fade away into obscurity or never even have a show at all. For Lindland’s sake I hope he’s found a company with a solid foundation.

According to Denis Kang in an article by The Fight Network, the word making the rounds is that former UFC middleweight Matt Lindland is on the verge of signing with Japanese-based promotion DREAM, a collaboration between FEG and former staff members of PRIDE:

“I want to win the grand prix,” Kang said. “Now they’ve got Akiyama, [Melvin] Manhoef, [Zelg] Galesic, [Kazushi] Sakuraba, Dong Sik Yoon … and I heard that Matt Lindland is going to be signing with them. There are a lot of good fighters I want to fight right there.”

Kang is set to make his debut for DREAM on April 29 at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan when the promotion kicks off its middleweight Grand Prix event. He goes on to add that the subsequent rounds of the tournament are tentatively scheduled for June and September.

The former PRIDE middleweight appears to be happy that K-1 HERO’s has been dissolved in favor of the new promotion:

“I don’t know what K-1’s problem was,” Kang said. “They’re a big company. It’s not like they don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t know if they were doing too much with running Hero’s and regular K-1 [shows], but it seemed to me like they were very disorganized.”

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.”

There’s a lot of speculation that Matt Lindland could be returning to the UFC in light of Kevin Iole’s recent revelation on Yahoo! that Lindland and UFC president Dana White spoke last week.

Iole was quick to temper expectations but it appears others are running with the story.

As much as I’d like to see it, I’m very pessimistic about Lindland returning to the UFC anytime soon, and I’m not even concerned about him being let go in 2005 after he displayed a logo for an unapproved sponsor.

First, Lindland wants to be paid good money. I think the asking price he’s gone for in the past is justifiable but it doesn’t matter what I think. Unless he drops his asking price and is willing to offer the UFC exclusive promotional rights, he might not be economically viable for the company.

Other hurdles include Lindland’s affiliation as a coach with the sworn enemy of the UFC, the IFL, along with his friendship with Dan Henderson. It doesn’t make sense for the UFC to pay big money for Lindland if he’s not going to be in the middleweight title picture. If Henderson beats Anderson Silva for the middleweight title on March 1 at UFC 82 in Columbus, Ohio, then Lindland can’t go for the title.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

From Yahoo! Sports:

Lindland worked the corner of Chael Sonnen in Sonnen’s unsuccessful WEC middleweight title bid against Paulo Filho last week in Las Vegas. After the bout, Lindland said he’d spoken to White about returning to fight in the UFC.

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.”

Matt Lindland is one of the top middleweights in the world and would be a welcome addition to a division that is sorely in need of talent. He’s another guy that could possibly give Anderson Silva a run for his money, fighting out of the same camp as the man Silva will be facing in March, Dan Henderson.

While some will label Lindland as a boring fighter, he’s got skills for days, especially when it comes to wrestling and top control. Lindland, arguably, has the best top control in modern mixed martial arts.

It doesn’t sound like much at this point, but the fact that they’re talking is good. Boring or not, someone of Lindland’s caliber belongs in the UFC.

Wow, what a headline, huh!?

Some of the regulars at FightOpinion.com are up in arms about the following statement that appears in Kevin Iole’s latest mailbag column on Yahoo!:

 I don’t think the chances are good of Lindland returning to the UFC. Lindland’s not what I call an exciting fighter. I guess that’s what you happens when you’re stuck watching that pitiful Ravens offense for so long, you begin to think Lindland is exciting. And to say that Lindland would wipe the floor with Anderson Silva is like saying Kyle Boller is a better quarterback than Tom Brady. Lindland is one of the world’s elite middleweights and is one of the few 185-pounders who would have a shot to defeat Silva. It would be a highly competitive bout and neither guy would wipe the floor with the other.

Where’s the beef?

Aside from Iole trying to make some sort of correlation between Kyle Boller and Matt Lindland, what’s so wrong with what he said?

Lindland is a bad matchup for Anderson Silva but he would not wipe the floor with him. And for him to say that the chances aren’t good of Lindland returning to the UFC are very accurate. Iole is correct.

Based on merit, Lindland belongs in the UFC middleweight division but politics will prevent him from returning. And I’m not even referring to the alleged issues he apparently has had with UFC president Dana White in the past. Lindland makes a lot of money fighting for BodogFIGHT in a non-exclusive capacity.

It remains to be seen if Bodog will ever schedule him again in light of them changing their business model but he has a rate that he expects to be paid. I doubt the UFC will meet that rate because he just doesn’t fit into what they need. Lindland is a great fighter and adds credibility to any promotion he’s involved with but aside of the Pacific Northwest, he’s not a draw. To justify the money he would command from the UFC he would need to be a big ticket seller and PPV seller and that’s simply not the case.

He has value to the newer promotions because of his credibility. If a new company wants to send a message to the public that they are for real, then it it’s worth it for them to meet Lindland’s asking price.

Lindland’s absence from the UFC comes down to money. Despite any issues the two sides have and Lindland’s desire to be non-exclusive, all of that would go away if both parties were in the ballpark when it came to perceived market value.

I’m not sure why people are dog piling on top of Iole at Fight Opinion when he actually deserves some credit.

Iole deserves credit because he didn’t make the blanket statement that some pundits have made in labeling Lindland a “boring” fighter. He’s merely stating his opinion that he doesn’t consider him exciting. Let the man have an opinion.

For my money, Lindland is plenty exciting. Is he exciting in the same way that Anderson Silva and Sokoudjou are exciting? Perhaps not. But it all comes down to personal tastes and to me, technically proficient fighters are a pleasure to watch. Lindland’s wrestling is superb and his boxing has gotten a lot better. He’s improved a great deal since his last stint in the UFC.

Let me make it clear that this is not directed at Iole; I sometimes wonder whether the people who claim Lindland is boring have seen his recent fights or are just going off of what other people have told them? I’m glad Iole was able to express his opinion without trying to stick him with the blanket “Lindland is boring” tag.

While we won’t see Lindland in the UFC it wouldn’t be surprising at all for him to be involved with M-1 Global. In fact, I am predicting that the next promotion you will see him fight for is M-1.

Why do I get the feeling that people are just looking for an excuse to rip Kevin Iole?

According to Gary Herman of 15 rounds.com, Trevor Prangley commented during the Strikeforce festivities at the Playboy Mansion this past weekend that talks are in motion for him to defend his BodogFIGHT middleweight title against Matt Lindland.

The match has not been signed yet and there are no indications of when or where it might take place. BodogFIGHT, which sponsored this past Saturday’s Strikeforce show, has changed its business model somewhat.

It is believed going forward the promotion will sponsor events promoted by other companies and lend fighters under contract to BodogFIGHT out. A match between two Bodog fighters, Jorge Masvidal and Matt Lee, took place on the Strikeforce card.

If Prangley vs. Lindland is signed, there’s a very real chance it could possibly take place on a future Strikeforce card (the next one is in November) or on the card of another promotion.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned through unnamed sources that Matt Lindland has significant changes planned for his Portland Wolfpack IFL team in 2008.

First, there is a chance that Krzysztof Soszynski from the LA Anacondas could drop down from heavyweight and represent the Wolfpack next season as their light heavyweight representative.

The Anacondas are in a bit of turmoil after the IFL released their head coach, Shawn Tompkins, late last week. IFL commentator and ex-Anacondas coach Bas Rutten will be working with Anaconda fighters that are scheduled for the upcoming World Grand Prix in the interim but a long-term successor has not been named.

There has also been numerous rumblings about Lindland bringing in a new heavyweight to the team. Apparently he’s touted this heavyweight as someone who could be the top heavyweight in the IFL next season. It’s been confirmed to 5 Oz. that the fighter is Brazilian. There is a lot of speculation that the fighter in question is none other than former UFC competitor Fabiano Scherner.

In other IFL-related news, the Florida Boxing Commission has approved the use of a ring for MMA events going forward. The IFL had to receive special permission to use its ring for tonight’s finals between the Silverbacks and the Pitbulls and there was concern that only a cage would be allowed for future events. The approval by the commission sets the stage for the IFL to run more events in Florida next year (and possibly add a new Florida franchise?).

For live blogging of tonight’s finals, remember to check out Ben Fowlkes’ blog by clicking here. Tonight’s finals will also be airing this Monday night at 8 p.m. ET on MyNetworkTV affiliates around the country (yes, it will be a quick turnaround).

I also wanted to remind everyone to check out my interview with IFL lightweight fighter Shad Lierley over at MMAjunkie.com.