Matt Lindland Trained With John Hackleman, American Top Team to Prepare for Vitor Belfort

I thought this was interesting from MMA Weekly:

Lindland also spent time at American Top Team in Florida, working with Ricardio Liborio and Pit trainer John Hackleman. In between training seminars, Lindland rolled with the fighters, picking up new skills along the way.

“I was able to learn a lot,” he says. “That was far enough away from the fight where I was still going developmental. Two, three weeks out from your fight, you’re really not trying to add a whole lot to your game, you’ve got to hone what your best skills are. ”

Very interesting cross-pollination going on here. Not only is Lindland's opponent Vitor Belfort training with Lindland's old partner Randy Couture, but Lindland is training at American Top Team, one of the biggest Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academies in the world. This is not something you would have seen 10 years ago. Throwing in Chuck Liddell's trainer John Hackleman is just icing on the cake.

Despite myself, I'm getting pumped for Affliction: Fedor vs Arlovski, Lindland vs Belfort, Babalu vs Soukoudjou, Little Nog vs Matyushenko, these are fights I want to see.