Matt Riddle Calls for Dan Hardy Fight, Rails on British Spitter

Dan Hardy already has his next fight lined up. He’s scheduled to fight in his hometown of Nottingham, England, against Amir Sadollah on Sept. 29 at UFC on Fuel TV 5.

But he may already have his next opponent after that… or if Sadollah happens to fall off the card, Matt Riddle is in the wings, ready and waiting.

After he defeated Chris Clements with the UFC 149 Submission of the Night on Saturday night in Calgary, Riddle mentioned at the post-fight press conference that he would really like to fight Hardy next.

“I’m down to fight anybody at any given time, anywhere,” Riddle remarked at the post-fight press conference. “I just picked Dan Hardy because he’s got a lot of hype behind him and I know that it will put me on the map for sure. I have nothing personal against him, but a win over him, I guarantee everybody knows my name afterwards.”

But that was when the fun began. Perhaps when we found out the truth behind Riddle’s “Dan Hardy callout.”

“I heard Riddle hates English people,” UFC president Dana White offhandedly remarked.

“I will be completely honest, when I fought in Manchester, England, they were very cruel to me,” Riddle retorted. “One fan actually spit directly in my face and he was lucky enough where it hit my mouth.”

“Wow. I was kidding,” laughed White.

“I don’t have anything against English people,” Riddle continued. “But to be disrespected like that, that was the part that really upset me.

“Everybody up here on this table is a world class athlete and we should be treated as a world class athlete. And for some butter-toothed Brit to spit in my mouth, that was some bull.”

Little did White realize what a can of worms his facetious remark would open up, but he rolled with it.

“We are definitely making the Dan Hardy fight!”

In reality, the timing probably won’t work out well, unless of course Sadollah does have to drop out of the fight sometime soon, but it could be cooking at a little warmer temperature on the back burner after Riddle’s timely rant.

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