Genuinely nice guy, in my opinion. Saw him on TUF when I was 14. We were from the same part of NY so I was a fan right away. On the show he said he ran a BJJ gym, which I asked my parents to let me check out. I ended up training there for a couple years. Matt was always there, very present, nice, funny, patient, personable. He was great with kids and a really good teacher.
I remember when he left to go fight GSP the first time. He came back with the belt and showed it to everyone at the school and let us all come up and look at it and hold it. Good times. Kinda surreal in retrospect.