Before becoming a star in the pro wrestling world, Matt Riddle was an MMA fighter and most notably fought in the UFC.
Riddle has taken the WWE by storm since deciding to sign with the company that later saw him start training at WWE’s training facility, Performance Center, in Orlando Florida and be placed in their developmental system, NXT.
Riddle talked about his relationship with UFC President Dana White as well as his departure from the promotion during a recent appearance on the Edge & Christian on E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness podcast.
Regarding his departure, he brought up how prior to White ripping him on television, he had a pleasant relationship with the UFC boss. It all started once UFC officials were upset with him about being vocal about the promotion allowing fighters to use performance-enhancing drugs but not being allowed to use medical cannabis.
“Up until him ripping me apart on FOX Sports and being really mean, it was pleasant [working with White],” Riddle explained. “Like, it seemed like a really nice work relationship. Everybody in the office seemed to like me. I think before my firing they were upset because, at the time when I was in UFC, they would allow fighters to use a lot of prescribed drugs as long as they had a doctor’s note. I was prescribed medical marijuana and they didn’t agree with it because it wasn’t federally legal. But they were letting a lot of fighters use prescribed testosterone and prescribed other things. And I was like, ‘well, you’re letting fighters use performance-enhancing drugs and I don’t think that’s appropriate.’ And they didn’t want me talking about that. So that was probably, like, the only back and forth that we had that was negative. Other than that, me and Dana had a great relationship.”
Although Riddle did think that his departure from the UFC was brutal, it wasn’t financially devastating for him.
“Well, of course, I’ll be honest, I just had my third kid [at the time of UFC termination]. I just had Zach, my son. So I just had my third kid right before that fight, so it was pretty brutal. But, at the same time, I was already riding a four-win streak. I had multiple submission bonuses and stuff like that. So I was doing fine in the sense for money at the time. But yeah I was just like, ‘I want to get signed somewhere. I want to get fights to be able to keep this ride going because right now I’m top 10 in the world and if I get another win, I can get ranked even higher and keep going and going.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcript
