“The Ultimate Fighter” alumnus Matt Riddle was cut from his UFC contract after what would’ve been a four-fight undefeated streak … the reason being was he failed he second drug test in a roughly eight-month span.
In an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s “The MMA Hour,” Riddle said the fact that he again tested positive for marijuana was “fishy.”
“... After my fight, Dana White was making comments, ‘Oh, maybe if people started fighting more exciting, unlike Riddle lately,’” Riddle said on the show.
“He did a couple interviews and mentioned how I haven't been fighting exciting, and then just so happens, a couple days later I fail a drug test and I get fired. There's just a couple variables, it just seems really fishy."
One reason Riddle is not convinced he legitimately failed the drug test is the fact the test found creatine in his system, a supplement he says he hasn’t taken since he was 16-years-old.
“Deep Waters,” who has a licensed medial marijuana user in the state of Nevada, was also put off by the fact he has passed drug tests by abstaining from using from the drug just two weeks before a fight.
In this instance, he claims he did not use marijuana for three weeks leading up to his UFC on FUEL 7 bout with Che Mills last month.
Riddle was upbeat about being able to fight on the regional circuit for the first time in his career and went as far as saying he had no interest in returning to the UFC if they continued to conduct business the way they have in recent weeks.
"What I see happening is, a year or two from now the UFC calls me back after I've won probably like five or six fights, hopefully. And I'll probably, at the time, say, ‘No.' Because I really don't like the direction they're taking the company,” he explained.
“They're firing high-level talent so they can have lower level talent just scrap, and they'd rather have a brawl than a good technical fight. I think that's going to be their downfall, because the fans are getting more educated.”
“They're getting smarter, and they don't want to just see a slugfest and two retarded guys with brain damage bleeding everywhere.”
Riddle was one of the rare fighters to compete inside the Octagon for the entirety of his young career, posting a 7-3(2) record before being cut.
Had Riddle never tested positive for marijuana, he’d currently be on a four-fight win streak. Instead, he is 2(2) in his past two fights, with two wins being reversed to a no contest due his positive tests.