Former UFC fighter turned pro wrestler Matt Riddle appeared on Sean Waltman’s X-Pac 12360 podcast this week and spoke about a number of MMA-related topics, including high school wrestling wins over Jon Jones and his involvement in the new WWN MMA Chinese promotion. Here are the highlights of what he said about:
Matt Riddle on beating Jon Jones at high school wrestling:
“I did. Actually two different occasions. But Jon Jones, he’s grown up a little bit. I’ve grown up a little bit. I’d still like to challenge him one day, but we’ll see what happens.”
Matt says after initially getting a yes from WWE, the company ultimately passed on him:
“I was still getting emails from Kane and stuff. So I was like, yeah. I think it was right before WrestleMania last year, they hit me up probably a couple months beforehand and they were like, hey Matt, sorry it took so long [etcetera] but we’re going to take a pass on you. They said, not forever, of course, maybe down the road. But they said, because of your past…we don’t want to take a chance. I was like alright, I completely understand.”
His latest venture with WWN, an MMA promotion based out of China:
“WWN MMA. That’s right. I helped put that relationship together. We actually went over to China, talked to the government over there, talked to some government officials. We talked to like, the athletic board I would say and got some fights lined up. We’re going to be on national television in China–first time ever. Pretty big deal. We’re probably going to start doing some pro wrestling shows there that are going to be on national television as well.”
Why Matt didn’t appear in Bellator after being released from UFC:
“I can’t actually talk about what happened but they released me from my contract…there was some ehhh in the contract and we had a disagreement and they released me. I haven’t talked to Bellator since.”
You can listen to Matt Riddle’s full appearance on X-Pac’s podcast here:
