According to a March 4 report from MMA Mania, Matt Riddle thinks the UFC is heading in a bad direction.
Riddle, who was recently fired from the UFC after being popped for marijuana metabolites for the second time, says the promotion fired him for fighting smart and technical.
"Look at guys like Dave Herman. Three fight losing streak, gets knocked out like three times in a row and fails two drug tests for weed and he is still in the UFC," Riddle said. "I don't take anything from Herman, I bet he is a great guy, but, I don't know, I think that is very hypocritical and those are politics right there, that's not good business. That's guys getting together having a little pow-wow and saying, 'Let's get rid of Riddle. He's fighting more conservative, he's going out there for wins and he's fighting more educated and I would rather hire a couple of guys from Australia or the U.K. that just brawl and pay them half as much.' I kind of knew. I was kind of getting paid more, everything was coming into play, I was hitting my stride and I think they were just looking for a way to get rid of me."
Riddle thinks the UFC favors brawlers instead of conservative fighters, and that's not something of interest to him.
"What I see happening is a year or two from now, the UFC will call me back after I've won five or six fights and I will probably, at that time, probably say no because I really don't like the direction they are taking the company," Riddle said. "They are firing high-level talent so they can have lower-level talent to just scrap. They would rather have a brawl than a good technical fight and I think that is going to be their downfall because the fans are getting more educated and they are getting smarter and they don't want to see a slugfest and two retarded guys with brain damage bleeding everywhere."
The UFC has a habit of bringing guys back after cutting them, if they head down to the regional ranks and rack up a couple wins.
But Riddle's comments may be enough to keep him out of the Octagon for good.
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