The Law

It’s a hard knock life for Matt Lindland. He’s coming off a loss against the greatest fighter in the world, in any weight class (Fedor Emelianenko) and Dana White still hasn’t made any effort to put him on the UFC payroll.

As far as I’m concerned, Matt Lindland is the best fighter in the world at 185 pounds. While UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva may dominate the popular rankings and Lindland’s teammate Dan “Hollywood” Henderson may hold the title in the highly competitive PRIDE welterweight division (the Japanese 185 pound crown; I ran Henderson #2 and hang Silva at around the #6 spot), the Law doesn’t get the recognition he deserves.

Lindland holds an Olympic silver medal in wrestling and has one of the best and most aggressive ground-and-pound attacks in the sport, his loss to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt David Terrell ended his stint with the UFC (the closest Terrell would ever get to tasting gold would be his loss in a title match to Evan Tanner).

Since leaving the UFC, Lindland has improved every aspect of his game and, like his training partner Dan Henderson, has stopped letting himself be defined by the boundaries of weight classes. Lindland recently finessed his way to a decision against 205 pound powerhouse and UFC lightheavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. While he lost the decision, it was a split decision (meaning one of the judges scored Lindland as the winner, while the other two scored for Rampage). Personally, I thought Lindland won the fight.

My first encounter with Lindland was watching him smash coaching legend and former UFC welterweight (170 pound) champion Pat Miletich at UFC 36 (to this day, UFC 36 is my favorite card). I’ve been a fan ever since.

Lindland coaches the IFL’s Portland Wolfpack, who have been mildly successful in the short time the IFL has been around.

Personally, people ask me why I think Lindland is better than Henderson (the newer fans ask me why I rank him above Silva). The answer is simple: Lindland will fight anybody, anywhere at any time, and he will give them a fight.

While he lost to Emelianenko in the Bodog Fight organization recently, he took Fedor down. There has been a lot of controversy around Emelianenko holding the ropes to hold off the takedown from the former Olympian. My opinion: Who cares? Fedor finished him from the bottom anyway.

However, Lindland joined the league of fighters like former UFC heavyweight champions Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman, becoming one of the few to put the incredibly talented PRIDE Heavyweight champion on his back. While all three were submitted (Coleman was arm-barred in both of his fights with Fedor and Randleman was finished with a Kimura after suplexing Fedor on his neck), it is still a big feat, particularly for Lindland, because while Randleman weighed 220 pounds and Coleman 250 before their fights with Fedor, Lindland was slightly about the 200 mark, giving up 30 pounds to the Russian champion.

Frankly, to fight an opponent with a 30 pound weight advantage isn’t unheard of in the heavyweight division, but to give up weight to a guy with skills on the level that Emelianenko has them is just incredible.

Lindland has the balls to do what no one else in the 185 pound division can or will, that’s why I rank him #1.