Matthew Riddle was scheduled to make his debut with Bellator next week at Bellator 100 in the opening round of the season nine welterweight tournament against Sergio Junior.
However, Riddle was forced to pull out of the tournament with an injury and announced his retirement on Twitter Monday evening.
“I’m retiring from MMA today,” Riddle tweeted. “I cracked my rib and I can’t fight Sept 20th. @BellatorMMA can’t give me a fight this year, so I can’t afford it!”
Since sending out the tweet announcing his retirement, Riddle or his management team have not made any statements on the retirement of The Ultimate Fighter 7 alum.
With Riddle out of the season nine tournament, Bellator will need to find a new fighter to face Sergio Junior in the opening round of the tournament next week at Bellator 100 in Arizona.
This is not the first time that Bellator has had to make changes to a season nine tournament as the organization had to find replacements already for Shahbulat Shamhalaev in the featherweight tournament and Andreas Spang in the middleweight tournament.
Stay tuned to TheMMAReport.com for updates on this developing story and who will replace Riddle in the season nine Bellator welterweight tournament.