Matt Riddle Pulls Out of Friday’s Event, Bellator Sends Him Packing

A welterweight feature fight between Matt Riddle and Nathan Coy has been removed from Friday’s Bellator 109 season-ending fight card. Not only is the fight off, so is Riddle’s Bellator tenure, which never actually began.

Friday’s fight was cancelled after Riddle pulled out of the bout. The promotion subsequently released Riddle from his contract.

“Originally scheduled to compete in the Season 9 Welterweight Tournament, Riddle suffered a rib injury and was removed from the tournament due to the injury. After withdrawing from the November 22nd fight, the promotion has decided to release Riddle,” read a statement from Bellator officials.

“Matt was a guy we had high hopes for coming into Bellator,” Bellator Director of Communications Anthony Mazzuca said. “After Matt suffered his rib injury and withdrew from our tournament, we went back to the drawing board and got Matt another fight on November 22nd. Unfortunately, Matt very recently informed us he would not be fighting on November 22nd from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and at that point we decided to release Matt from Bellator. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

Riddle’s travels since being released by the UFC earlier this year have been rocky, at best.

Upon his Octagon exit, Riddle was quickly signed to Legacy Fighting Championship. Before he ever got a fight in with Legacy, Bellator moved in and negotiated a deal with Legacy to sign the embattled fighter.

Riddle had originally been scheduled to fight in this season’s Bellator welterweight tournament, but had to bow out due to a rib injury. He then inexplicably announced that he was going to retire.

Having a change of heart, Riddle did another 180 and was slated to fight at the season-closing event on Friday, but when he pulled out of that fight, Bellator officials apparently tired of dealing with his drama and cut their losses.