Matt Riddle retired from fighting earlier this week after claiming he could no longer afford to be in the sport following a rib injury that forced him out of his Bellator debut. Now he’s venting his anger by lashing out at the sport and the organization who first brought him to the public’s attention.
“It’s a trash sport, people trash us all the time, we don’t get paid s–t and it’s like you lose one fight and people say you should quit fighting anyway,” Riddle ranted during a lengthy interview with MMAJunkie.com. “Why would I want to be a part of that? I’m tired of it.”
“Right now I’m so fed up with the people that run this sport, I don’t want anything to do with it,” he added.
UFC president Dana White took Riddle’s comments rather personally and fired back at him during a segment on the ‘UFC Tonight’ show.
White pointed out that despite Riddle’s claims that he was underpaid that he was in fact getting over $162,000 a year during the period from 2011-2013 in the UFC and the reason why he’s not making that any more is because he got kicked out for failing two separate drugs tests.
He also sarcastically wishes him luck finding a job that will enable him to only show up three times a year, and notes that you also have to pass drug testing in order to get a ‘real’ job these days.
Riddle certainly seems to be an expert at digging a big hole for himself. Elsewhere in his interview he actually suggested he might not be retired for good and may come back in a year or two, but his impulsive outbursts make that increasingly difficult. He’s clearly burned his bridges with the UFC, and the fact that he’s pretty much thrown Bellator under a bus too he’s unlikely to be welcomed back with open arms there either.
Check out White’s rant in full below.
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