The MMA documentary, Fighting Politics, has just been released on DVD and Blu Ray and essentially covers the life story of Matt Lindland where fighting and politics are concerned. However, the film also delves into the politics of fighting, which is bound to stir up a host of controversy in the MMA community.
Below is a rather benign promo clip featuring current UFC fighter Chael Sonnen:
Payout Perspective:
The basic premise of the documentary seems to be that Matt Lindland is the best middleweight in the world – certainly the best middleweight you’ve never heard of – and that he was unfairly pushed out of the UFC. At least that’s the impression the main trailer gives off on the movie’s website. Judge for yourself.
What’s particularly interesting, and bound to stir up the most controversy, is the number of known UFC “enemies of state” that appear in the movie (most notably in the trailer) speaking negatively about Dana White and his influence on the sport. Loretta Hunt, Josh Gross, and Jeff Sherwood all get their shots in.
No wonder Dana White and Josh Gross were involved in a text message slugfest last night at UFC on Versus. This could get ugly.
Edit: It apparently already has; Zuffa revoked the credentials for Sherdog two hours before the fight.
I watched a bunch of these clips, and it basically seems like it’s the whole staff of Sherdog piling on complaining about Dana White, which just sounds like a lot of bitterness that they’re still holding on to due to not getting media credentials or whatever they were pissy about a few years back.
As for Matt Lindland, getting completely demolished in 3 of his last 4 is hurting his chance of UFC more than any politics. It’s been shown time and time again that if you’re someone the fans want to see, the UFC will suck it up and sign you (BJ Penn? Tito Ortiz? Kimbo Slice?). The problem with Lindland is, he’s not as good as they want to pretend, and even when he’s winning, he’s doing it in a way that nobody wants to watch.
I was present at the press conference where Dana White promised Lindland the next title shot at 185. White never followed through on that promise. I believe that the UFC tried repeatedly to get Lindland beaten, succeeded with David Terrell and failed at other times. They finally just kicked him out based on that BS t-shirt thing.
Dana haters unite and make a hit piece.
Yawn. Matt is has never been known as an easy guy to get along with. He had hissy fits at press conferences, hissy fits in the cage and hissy fits backstage.
He was not well liked and when the t-shirt thing happened, it was used to get rid of them. But it was not simply they were afraid he would win the title. He was a less than pleasant person and was seen as more trouble than he was worth.
Hell, does anyone remember when he cornered BJ against GSP? After the fight, Matt was trying to get heard on Joe’s mic so he could complain about the decision. Unprofessional behavior.
Why is MMAPayout participating with these clowns? Just report the facts guys. Stay out of the opinion part of MMA.
When you break rules you have no right to complain. In all areas of like some get more wiggle room than others. Lindland knows this and cant expect to get Tito or Lesnar treatment. He flaunted the rules and got punished. He was boring as hell. noone wants to see him fight. to sum up how boring he is. He fought on a Gracie Fighting Championship event which i saw in person. During his fight a hot girl went back stage, come back seconds to 1 minute later and walked around the ring flashing the croud to keep them entertained. There is no doubt she was put up to it by the promotion to try to kill the booing going on because the fight. He is an event killer on top of that the UFC had to deal with someone who wont follow a simple rule.
As for Sherdog it is quite clear where their bias comes from. They got denied media creds because the UFC wanted NY times and LA times to cover the UFC and they would not do it sharing press row with every unqualified internet dork who threw up a website. Sherdog and its flunkies were a group of fans who felt they would cling to the UFC and ride them to success with little qualifications yet call themselves journalists. Hell, one of Sherdogs “journalists” works for Fed Ex as a driver. Not that its a big deal but these guys think of themselves as Barbara Walters of MMA going around pretending they care about the sport only when they benifit from it. Then when those benefits are gone they do everything they can to hurt the sport. Most hardcore fans ditched sherdog years ago.
Interesting that even Kevin Iole is in the clip saying he doesn’t know why he got cut. Do you? If the UFC/Dana White makes a stink about Sherdog participating in this (at least just by looking at the clip) then we will see what he does (if anything, and I know he won’t) do to Kevin Iole. They’re BFF’s.
LOL, these interviews are from 2 1/2 years ago, when some people still thought Matt Lindland was relevant.
Josh Gross and Loretta Hunt smashing ZUFFA? Stunner!!!!!!!!!
After reading the links they got what they deserved. Everyone jumps on a boring DVD to bash the UFC and Dana White. For what reason? Media attention? MMA Media got their press creds back a while ago. They can cover the UFC and this is a favor from the UFC. So they go on to bash Dana and expect to go right along piggybacking off him and his company. Dont bute the hand that feeds you.
To show what a scub bag Josh Gross is. The text of Dana telling Gross that it wasnt none of his business is now twisted into Dana telling SportsIllustrated.com its none of their business.
The UFC needs to perma Ban these tools.
And Loretta Hunt adding in here 2 cents on the DVD is comical. She needs to go back to running Full Contact Fighter into the ground. She says the UFC makes their own rankings and does what ever they want. Since when do they have their own rankings? Even if this was so. They can rank THEIR fighters in any order they please. Isnt it the right of every private company in this country to run their business as they see fit? Maybe the government can take over the UFC like heathy care just because Mrs? Hunt didnt get her way.
The Lesson to be learned here is just because you want to be a real journalist dont mean you can bash everyone who doesnt treat you as such.
JJ,
Not really sure what you mean by participation, or opinion for that matter. I’ve simply made our readers aware that the documentary – a commercial MMA product – has been released and may start some controversy. Those are the facts; no value judgments there.
I’ll leave it to others to interpret the situation for themselves.
Cheers,
Kelsey
For the record, sherdog was banned originally because josh gross, an “employee” of theirs at the time, purposely leaked results about TUF4. he was then released and somehow lucked into getting an job with SI.com, most likely due to the lack of experienced mma writers at the time.
regardless of the fact that this “Fighting Politics” was shot and filmed a few years back, they are releasing it now, even though it’s message is pretty much irrelevant to today’s mma landscape, and one can’t help but think this is in fact just another way for them to attack dana. no wonder he banned them again.
Josh Gross is still very anti/dana and anti/ufc and comes up with some of the most inane things that i have ever read on the mma interwebs. look for SI to replace him once they figure out he’s a hack.
Loretta Hunt is so smart that she stated last year that Gina Carano would get something like “10 times” the media coverage that UFC 100 would. do i need to say anything else?
Matt Lindland did in fact get a title shot at MW and lost to maurillo bustamante, got koed twice in the 1rst rnd, 1 of which he koed himself alonf the way, lol, and phil baroni was probably was his biggest win at MW. he was also warned not to wear that shirt before the weigh-ins, yet he still did it anyway and was reportedly paid 6 figures for it. why else would he risk getting canned? and, as mentioned by others above, he was not only hard to get along with and a problematic employee, he thought he was above the rules and found out differently and has been bitter ever since. plus it’s not like he’s tito, who also wore a controversial t-shirt at a weigh in, in the fact that he was never a champion and never pulled in the fans like tito used to. look where his career is at today. in the toilet. why does it seem this always happens to fighters who have a falling out with dana white (see josh barnett, ken and frank shamrock) coincidence? i think not. karma’s a bitch.
Jeff Sherwood is clinically obese and has no life outside his pc and a bag of doritos. his site is so big mainly due to the fact that it has been around so much longer than most. anyone ever read the comments on that site? it’s an ongoing joke and it wouldn’t surprise me if espn ditched them for a more reputable site. nuff said. 🙂
Brent…
ESPN’s MMA Live quotes MMA Junkie way more than Sherdog.
JJ
yes iv’e noticed that as well and that they use mma weekly’s rankings on the scroll for the results on sportscenter, but sherdog is still their partner on espn.com and i could see that changing if the ufc keeps advancing more into the mainstream. then again mma may never really make it big into the mainstream and nobody will care who espn uses.