Matt Riddle Feels MMA Promotions Don’t Respect Their Athletes

Matt Riddle is currently one of the mainstays of WWE television since signing with the company in 2018. His in-ring skills are one of the best in the company and his character work only improves with time.

Before making his way to the world of professional wrestling, Matt Riddle competed in the MMA world, most notably the UFC. Riddle worked in the UFC from 2008 to 2013, before being fired after failing drug tests multiple times for marijuana in 2013.

While speaking to WWE Deutschland on IGTV, Matt Riddle talked about how he stopped loving the MMA world. Matt Riddle stated that MMA promotions do not respect their athletes.

“So when I got fired from the UFC, I went to Bellator, and was trying to make that work, and that didn’t work out. I can’t get into it. But then, I went to Titan FC. I remember I was fighting the UFC for $25,000 to show up, $25,000 to win. When I fought in Titan, my last fight in MMA, I fought for $5,000, flat. After that fight, I was thinking, I signed another fight, to fight Ben Saunders, and I was just like, ‘This isn’t what I want to do,’ and I felt like I put enough hard work and time into it, where I just felt extremely disrespected and when I would watch professional wrestling, because I always did growing up and even at this point, I saw the amount of respect the fans had for the athletes, but in turn, the company had to respect the athlete, and I felt like that was missing from MMA.”

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Matt Riddle is more than happy working in WWE right now as he is currently teaming up with Randy Orton and are likely to challenge for the RAW Tag Team titles eventually.