Matt Riddle is the guest on this week’s “After The Bell” podcast with Corey Graves. Riddle made headlines earlier this year with his comments about Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar reportedly was not happy about Riddle trying to start an angle with him and, as of now, there are no plans for a Riddle vs. Lesnar match. Riddle addressed this during the interview.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
Matt Riddle talked about lying his way into the UFC: “Honestly, I wasn’t the best at the book learning. I was destined for something else. I was never going to be behind a desk. I wrestled throughout college. At the same time, I felt I was limited. That’s when I started doing jiu-jitsu and fighting. I dropped out of college and trained in my apartment because back in the day when I was training, there weren’t even gyms to train out. It was illegal in places. You couldn’t even do mixed martial arts in most states. With me with my wrestling pedigree, I picked up jiu-jitsu pretty quick. I got lucky. I had one amateur fight. I lied to the Ultimate Fighter. I told them I was 1-0 pro. Before, there wasn’t a Sherdog back then to check and they believed me. I got on the Ultimate Fighter, knocked the first dude out brutally, like, broke his jaw in three spots. It was insane. Then they found out I was 1-0 amateur and they were like, bro. I had to get all the medical work done as they thought I already had it done, but I didn’t. I lied.”
Riddle asked “When did you decide to try pro wrestling”: “When I left MMA, I put so much hard work in it and it wasn’t working. I was struggling to get fights. The money just wasn’t there. I was watching WrestleMania 30 where Daniel Bryan became the champion and the Undertaker’s streak was broken. I watched that PPV. I’m seeing before my eyes that WrestleManias mean something. I thought, this is a new era. This brand, this sport is going towards guys like me. This is something I always wanted to do. I felt like, even with MMA, I always wait for my opportunity. Things are hot when they are hot. I saw that Mania. The Network was fresh and I thought I have to do this. I have to commit myself to this. I sold my house in Vegas. I moved to Pennsylvania. I trained at the Monster Factory. I went to the ROH dojo. I trained everywhere and committed myself to it.”
Riddle discussed challenging Brock Lesnar: “I’ll be honest with you. The guys has it all. I think he’s taken my comments as like, literal disrespect. I think he really hates me. Which, hey, ok. I get it. I rubbed you the wrong way. I told everybody that I get it, I’ll stay away. I won’t call people out anymore. I won’t call these people out anymore. I’m not going to go away. I’m going to make myself valuable enough to where the money is on the table. I know I can do that. When I first started wrestling, when I sold the house and everything, people would ask me what is my goal for wrestling. I would say that I like to set goals that are almost unattainable because in the process of trying to get to that goal, you’re probably going to be great in the process. So they asked, what’s your goal? I want to retire the Undertaker and I want to retire Brock Lesner. Brock, nothing but the utmost respect and I think my words were taken as disrespectful which is fine, but at the end of the day, I just know what I have to do. I need to make myself valuable enough to get in the ring with him and I hope I can do it.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit After The Bell with Corey Graves with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
