Kevin Iole reveals in his new mailbag column for Yahoo! Sports that Matt Lindland and UFC president Dana White have had some recent communication:

The first, albeit tiny, steps toward middleweight Matt Lindland's return to the UFC were taken last week when Lindland spoke to UFC president Dana White.

Lindland hasn't fought in the UFC since UFC 54 on Aug. 20, 2005. He wore a shirt bearing the logo of a sponsor not approved by UFC management and hasn't been back.

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, he 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."

Iole tempers the possibility of Lindland returning to the UFC by prefacing his statement with "first, albeit tiny, steps..." but even that might be an overly optimistic appraisal of the situation. The operative phrase I'm focusing on is White saying "... I haven't thought about it at all" in his response to the question of whether Lindland will return.

Haven't thought about it at all? The middleweight division is the thinnest division in the UFC and he receives an overture from one of the top middleweights in the world and he hasn't thought about 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 with the IFL as a coach and also 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 go for the title. If Henderson beats Anderson Silva for the middleweight title on March 1 at UFC 82 in Columbus, Ohio, then Lindland can't be involved in the title picture.

If Silva is able to get past Henderson, I think you might see White revisit talks with Lindland. However, it just doesn't make sense for the UFC to have Lindland in the middleweight division if Henderson is the champ. 

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com