TUF 7′s Matt Riddle to Train with Team Quest

MMA Junkie ran their weekly interview with recently eliminated Ultimate Fighter, Matt Riddle, earlier this week. While most of the interview is pretty standard; the laughing, the joking, and a couple curse words here and there, there’s a couple of interesting tidbits worthy of reading.

Apparently Riddle, who trained at Team Russel Jiu-Jitsu before moving to Rat Pack Fighting Systems where he was currently training, had some news to share:

I’m probably going to train with (fellow castmate Mike) Dolce and all those guys at Team Quest North and then with Rampage at Big Bear (Calif.) with the high altitude and stuff to get ready for my fight… Rampage and I got along very well. I got along with Juanito, too, and all the coaches. They still call me to see what I’m doing.

The news doesn’t come as much of a surprise if you think about it. Riddle really needs to be training with other top caliber fighters like his friend from Team Quest and ex-IFL fighter, Mike Dolce along with Rampage and his friends at Big Bear. The surprise comes at how Riddle hints about his treatment from his friends at Rat Pack Fighting Systems.

Here’s the first part of the quote:

I don’t know what the deal is with the place I’ve been at here. I’ve been here like four months, and all the sudden I’m like their poster boy, but it’s about to end. I’m having a meeting tonight, and I don’t care if you put this in there, but I’m telling him off. It’s like they’re trying to use me. Yeah, it’s probably smart on their part because it puts them on the map, but they could have gone about it differently. I feel like I’m being taking advantage of, and I don’t like that.

Wow, talk about burning some bridges. While I don’t know the extent of the mistreatment that Riddle apparently suffered, it’s always discouraging to hear a fighter publically issuing a negative comment about a current or past fight camp before resolving the issue privately.

You can read the rest of the interview here to learn about Riddle’s finale fight on June 21st along with some thoughts about his knockout of Dan Simmler.