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Quote of the day – Kevin Iole on Matt Lindland

By Zach Arnold | November 27, 2007

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Kevin Iole does not like Matt Lindland:

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.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

22 Responses to “Quote of the day – Kevin Iole on Matt Lindland”

  1. hey971 says:

    Kevin Iole is retarded

  2. Cool! Can we teach it cuss words too?

  3. Kev says:

    It looks like Iole is saying Lindland:Silva::Kyle Boller:Tom Brady, but he doesn’t actually say that. Nor does he say anything bad about Lindland other than him being boring…he does say it would be a “highly competitive bout”, which is an reasonable assessment.

    Iole gets in trouble however because he’s getting cute, his attempt at sounding clever makes him sound clueless again.

  4. Zack says:

    All Lindland’s fights since leaving the UFC have been exciting. The only time he’s gone to decision since leaving the UFC was against the current UFC LHW champ in a fight I thought Lindland won.

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    Lindland wants a lot of money per fight. Yet the two times he headlined a PPV, it sold horribly. So he is not worth the high price tag he has been getting.

    Once he gets over that fact, he can sign with the UFC, and work his way towards a title shot.

  6. Zack says:

    Where’s your source on that 45?

    Meltzer stated prior to the Fedor fight that Lindland got a 3 fight deal worth $1mil. No one would dispute that’s way more than he and most other fighters are worth payscale-wise.

    Do you have the inside source of what his last UFC offers were? I highly doubt it. I read the same newsletter that you do.

  7. The Gaijin says:

    I find it humourous that 45 is blaming the lack of success of the two aforementioned PPV’s on Lindland, when it was clear he wasn’t the “main attraction” nor promoted as such. He was paid less than either guy at the time of the fights and he’s getting paid less than one of them right now, one who’s the current LHW champ (and who he arguably beat).

    So, I guess by that logic Rampage should “get over it” and start giving some money back from the nice little contract he’s got right now.

  8. Harry says:

    UFC seemed interested in him when Silva first won the title because there was a real fear of Silva hurting the company as champion since he couldn’t get over like the other champions because he doesn’t speak English (well, neither does Chuck Liddell most days…) But he is now extremely popular just on his fighting ability and that he seems like a good guy. Matt definitely doesn’t have UFC in a corner now. Even less so now that Henderson has agreed to drop to 185.

    I don’t think he deserves to make anywhere close to what Tito & Liddell earn because I don’t ever see him being a draw. He’s good for hardcore MMA fans, but to newer/casual fans they won’t view him as exciting, nor does he have the personality to sell. So if he’s demanding Liddell money, Dana is right to not sign him. Plus with his closeness to Randy Couture, is he interested anymore?

  9. 45 Huddle says:

    I don’t remember where I read all the information… But i remember two distinct pieces of info.

    1. Matt Lindland seriously considered going on TUF 4 to earn the title shot. He ended up deciding against it. I believe it was because of the offers he was getting from outside the UFC.

    2. It was reported later on that he was offered a UFC contract, and he basically laughed at how little it was. I believe it was on a website like MMA Mania, but can’t remember exactly.

    As for The Gaijin…… You miss a crucial element to the discussion….

    Quinton Jackson was proven to at least get fans interested in Japan. Not to mention that he has charisma and that “it” factor that sells events. Lindland has never been popular anywhere he competed, and has multiple PPV headlines to prove he isn’t worth $50,000 a fight. Not to mention that Lindland has a charisma of a bowl of corn flakes.

    Heck, I bashed the UFC for dropping him after UFC 54…. Zuffa was completely in the wrong in that case. But lets be honest. The guy was getting 6 figures a fight, and who is going to want to take a pay cut? As of right now, I would be shocked if any company paid him more then $50,000 a fight (and even that is high). The guy just isn’t worth it financially. Plain and simple. I personally enjoy watching him fight…. But come on….

  10. Zack says:

    “1. Matt Lindland seriously considered going on TUF 4 to earn the title shot. He ended up deciding against it. I believe it was because of the offers he was getting from outside the UFC.”

    Lindland is a grown ass man pushing 40 with a wife and kids and is top 5 in his weight class. I don’t think anyone blames him for not wanting to get boarded up inside the TUF house.

    “2. It was reported later on that he was offered a UFC contract, and he basically laughed at how little it was. I believe it was on a website like MMA Mania, but can’t remember exactly.”

    You don’t remember exactly but will push it off as fact until you get called on it. Sweet source.

  11. Jeremy Lynch says:

    The Gaijin Says:

    November 27th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
    I find it humourous that 45 is blaming the lack of success of the two aforementioned PPV’s on Lindland, when it was clear he wasn’t the “main attraction” nor promoted as such. He was paid less than either guy at the time of the fights and he’s getting paid less than one of them right now, one who’s the current LHW champ (and who he arguably beat).

    So, I guess by that logic Rampage should “get over it” and start giving some money back from the nice little contract he’s got right now.

    ========================

    While Lindland may not have been the “star” of either ppv, he was in the main event and promoted. The WFA Showtime special spent a fair amount of time on him.

    He deserves a fair amount of credit/blame for how the shows do. You can’t dump it all on Jackson and Fedor.

    45,
    Lindland was not dropped because of how much he made. A part of his being let go had to do with his sparkling personality. One public outburst too many. Part of it was that he was seen as being simply not worth the hassle he caused.

    ============
    As far as Lindland being in the top five of the MWs, who can say? He never faces any good MWs. He had a chance to fight Silva (he agreed to the fight) but then chose to face MVA. That is his choice, but ranking him is pretty much a joke since the biggest MW he has beaten in the last couple of years is a worn down Jeremy Horn.

  12. Marc says:

    “multiple PPV headlines”
    UFC 37: moot
    WFA: Quinton and Bas were the big draws, not to mention the show was doomed to fail from the get-go.
    Bodog: Fedor was the supposed draw here, but again, the show was destined to fail.

    “Not to mention that Lindland has a charisma of a bowl of corn flakes.”

    Wow you’re dense. Lindland is arguably the best trash-talker in the business.

    The whole Lindland is boring argument is retarded. The guy was in one of the very best fights of 2006, and hasn’t had a bad fight since Fryklund in 2004.

  13. Zack says:

    Jeremy…what would your top 5 middleweights be, strictly based on recent wins at middleweight?

    I would agree that Lindland gets many props for fighting out of his weight class. For example, beating MVA faster than Couture did, and doing better against Rampage than anyone else since probably the Ninja fight.

  14. The Gaijin says:

    He cleaned out JVH in about 1/4 of the time it took Chuck Liddell to do during his “heyday” as the man with the most dangerous hands in mma.

  15. Andrej says:

    I would be shocked if any company paid him more then $50,000 a fight (and even that is high). The guy just isn’t worth it financially. Plain and simple. I personally enjoy watching him fight…. But come on….

    I usually agree with 45 huddle or whatever you want to be called. But come on are you serious? 50,000 for Matt Lindland. They just resigned Yushin Okami. Matt Lindland is american, Has had exciting fights resently, and he is just plain fucking dangerous. How is that not marketable? 50,000 is a bargin compared to what Frank Shamrock would expect. If I were the UFC I would try and sign him to an affordable contract – say $45,000 to start and get to $60,000 to $90,000 if he reached there he would be close to main event status by then.

    I would pay to see Matt Lindland vs Rich Franklin, wouldn’t you?

  16. The Gaijin says:

    It would be funny to see that fight now…seeing as about 3 years ago this is the fight that was allegedly intentionally avoided by black-balling Lindland.

  17. Zack says:

    It’s funny when people say Lindland is unmarketable too. You don’t think the UFC could figure out a way to market an OLYMPIC SILVER MEDALIST? C’mon.

  18. David M says:

    Who said Lindland doesn’t have charisma?? You must not have seen the way he utterly destroyed Baroni in his interviews. Lindland is very clever, is a top 3 middleweight in the world, and he has definitely gotten more exciting.

    The fact that Kevin Iole has a mma writing gig that is considered “credible” is disgusting. That man can’t write to save his life.

    Equating Lindland with Boller is retarded. Iole is Dana’s bitch and has no credibility.

  19. David says:

    Iole is a creep.

  20. Will says:

    First of all, let’s all concur that, despite having some knowledge of MMA, Kevin Iole is just a bad writer.

    Secondly, since when is Matt Lindland not worth $50,000 per fight? If anyone has been paying attention to fighter salaries lately, this isn’t a huge contract. Further, if you treat Matt Lindland the way WFA did, he can be marketed to the public successfully. Right now, beyond the Hendo fight, there are no compelling matchups at 185 in the UFC. Even if Okami works his way up, gets a shot and wins in 2008, will he be more marketable than Lindland? Certainly not.

  21. […] 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. […]

  22. Chuck says:

    I think the reason why people don’t think Lindland is charasmatic is because he doesn’t LOOK charasmatic. He is a pale, balding white dude with a beard. Most people associate a look like that as being boring. But as most of us know, he isn’t boring.

    For the wrestling fans here, look at “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. He has a similar look as Lindland; a pale white dude with a hair color almost as pale as his skin. His hair is almost white it’s so pale-blonde. But the man CAN talk, and has boatloads of charisma. There’s more than meets the eye with many people…

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