Bellator MMA has released welterweight Matt Riddle from his Bellator contract after the fighter withdrew from his fight against Nathan Coy at this weeks Bellator 109.
Bellator announced the release of Riddle on Tuesday.
Riddle (7-3, 2NC) signed with Bellator earlier this year following his release from the UFC. He was initially schedule to be in the season nine welterweight tournament, but an injury forced him off the card and he later retired. His retirement would be short and it was announced that he would be on the Bellator 109 card against Nathan Coy.
“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.”
After Bellator announced the release of Riddle, TheMMAReport.com reached out to Pat Wilson of Rise Management. Wilson stated that he no longer represents Riddle and it’s unfortunate that the welterweight fighters never competed in Bellator.
“Bellator stayed professional throughout the period,” Wilson said in a text. “Matt was under contract with them. They are are a great organization. Sam Caplan is a great guy to deal with. It’s unfortunate that Matt did not step foot in the Bellator cage.”
With the Riddle-Coy bout scratched from Friday’s card, Bellator 109 will now go forward with ten fights and the full card is below.
Main Card: (Spike TV – 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT)
Alexander Shlemenko (48-7) vs. Doug Marshall (18-6) – MW Title Bout
Will Brooks (12-1) vs. Alexander Sarnavskiy (25-1) – LW Tournament Final
Ron Keslar (11-3) vs. Rick Hawn (17-2) – WW Tournament Final
Patrick Cenoble (9-2-1) vs. Terry Etim (15-5)
Preliminary Card: (Spike.com – 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT)
Keith Bell (5-2-1) vs. Blagoi Ivanov (8-0)
Saul Almeida (13-4) vs. Goiti Yamauchi (15-1)
Ahsan Abdullah (5-3) vs. Mike Bannon (4-1)
Bubba Jenkins (4-1) vs. Ian Rammel (5-5)
Brett Glass (2-0) vs. Brent Primus (3-0)
Lester Caslow (10-8) vs. Jay Haas (11-12)