Matt Riddle Signs With Titan Fighting Championships, Faces UFC vet Michael Kuiper at TFC 27 [MAYBE BUT PROBABLY NOT]


(After snapping this photo, Riddle would spend the next 15 minutes hitting himself in the head with his shoe.)

I wasn’t sure if I should start this article with a stoner joke or a vagabond joke, so I’ll just combine the two and say that Matt Riddle has more or less evolved into the Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker of the MMA world at this point. For the past year or so, the TUF 7 alum has just sort of drifted through several MMA organizations, handing out stoney life lessons on child-rearing, corporate greed and the employment crisis in America, all while retiring from MMA at least twice in the process.

And while Kai’s story ended in a murder charge, it appears that Riddle is destined for the slightly-more-dignified world of regional MMA (that was a joke, nerds, so please fight the urge to lose your shit in the comments section). News broke earlier today that “Deep Waters” has signed with Titan Fighting Championships — not to be confused with Legacy Fighting Championships, who Riddle almost fought for before Bellator bought out his contract — and will face fellow UFC vet Michael Kuiper in the co-main event of LFC 27 in February.

If I were a gambling man, however, I’d say that you’d be better off placing money on any currently scheduled UFC squash match title fight than on the likelihood of seeing Riddle actually show up for this thing. Although Titan FC CEO Jeff Aronson insists that Riddle is “…being exceptionally cooperative” thus far, he probably just spoke to Riddle after he had smoked a particularly potent strain of Cali Kush. Matter of fact, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Riddle pulls out of this fight tomorrow and claims that he thought he was receiving a role in the next Clash of the Titans movie the entire time.


(After snapping this photo, Riddle would spend the next 15 minutes hitting himself in the head with his shoe.)

I wasn’t sure if I should start this article with a stoner joke or a vagabond joke, so I’ll just combine the two and say that Matt Riddle has more or less evolved into the Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker of the MMA world at this point. For the past year or so, the TUF 7 alum has just sort of drifted through several MMA organizations, handing out stoney life lessons on child-rearing, corporate greed and the employment crisis in America, all while retiring from MMA at least twice in the process.

And while Kai’s story ended in a murder charge, it appears that Riddle is destined for the slightly-more-dignified world of regional MMA (that was a joke, nerds, so please fight the urge to lose your shit in the comments section). News broke earlier today that “Deep Waters” has signed with Titan Fighting Championships — not to be confused with Legacy Fighting Championships, who Riddle almost fought for before Bellator bought out his contract — and will face fellow UFC vet Michael Kuiper in the co-main event of LFC 27 in February.

If I were a gambling man, however, I’d say that you’d be better off placing money on any currently scheduled UFC squash match title fight than on the likelihood of seeing Riddle actually show up for this thing. Although Titan FC CEO Jeff Aronson insists that Riddle is “…being exceptionally cooperative” thus far, he probably just spoke to Riddle after he had smoked a particularly potent strain of Cali Kush. Matter of fact, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Riddle pulls out of this fight tomorrow and claims that he thought he was receiving a role in the next Clash of the Titans movie the entire time.

But for now, Riddle will square off with Kuiper, a 12-3 middleweight out of the Netherlands who dropped 3 out of 4 fights while in the UFC and is currently riding back-to-back guillotine choke losses. But what do you think, Nation? Will Riddle re-retire before ever stepping into the cage, or will he “SMASH! SMASH! SUUH-MAAASH!” Kuiper in his first post-UFC fight?

–J. Jones