Mar-5-2010

Painful lesson: Osipczak helped Matthew Riddle shape up

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By Chuck Mindenhall

There was a time not that long ago when Matthew Riddle was working at The Bon-Ton department store, eating bad freezer foods and wondering what he was going to do in life. That was all the way back in 2006ish. From there he became a video clerk, before taking his “least favorite job of all” as a roofer. He was also watching copious amounts of pro wrestling.

Meanwhile, when he wasn’t doing any of that, Riddle was furiously studying Jiu-Jitsu. Not at a school or in a training center, but in his living room. Riddle was teaching himself how to grapple in his apartment by watching tapes and reading books between Ramen noodle meals.

To look at him then it would have been hard to imagine, but the broke collegiate wrestler was gunning to make a career in mixed martial arts and— though he’s as just as laid back as Spicoli—nobody can knock the 24-year-old’s DIY work ethic.

“Yeah, it’s all true—I left college after my wrestling coach [at East Stroudsburg University] got fired and I lost my scholarship,” he says. “I went to upstate New York to train Jiu-Jitsu and the gym we were training at was like two times a week, for one class a day. And the guy was basically a con artist, he wasn’t that great at jitz—I mean, he had a black belt, but in upstate New York who’s going to challenge it? So I ended up buying six Zebra Mats from him and laid them down in my apartment.”

And just like that, the likes of BJ Penn and Eddie Bravo were training the smilingest man in America how to submit people to the consternation of poor unsuspecting neighbors.

“Whenever we had money, we’d get Eddie Bravo 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu, BJ’s “Book of Knowledge,” all the books. Basically we’d read the books and try the moves, read the books, try the moves. We’d go through 30 moves in a day, and next thing you know I’m entering Grapplers Quest tournaments and smashing people.”

Kookier still is that these little forays led to a big break in a hurry. Riddle tried out for The Ultimate Fighter 7 and, despite having no professional record at all, was able to land a spot on the show. Having to fight to get in the house, you might recall, he took on a guy named Dan Simmler from Matt Serra’s school and made the loudest introduction in the show’s history. He knocked out Simmler with a vicious right hand in the second round—a blow that Dana White called the biggest knockout in company history. It broke Simmler’s jaw in two places.

Talk about a memorable beginning for a guy who called his mother’s furniture home just a week before.

“I loved being on the show,” says Riddle, who now lives and trains in Las Vegas. “It was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Before TUF I had no job. I was living on my couch at home with my mom like a straight-up dumbass. After I got there I break a guy’s jaw. And then I lose my next fight to Tim Credeur, which kind of sucked.”

But Riddle wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t find the silver lining even in the loss. For starters, Credeur was generous enough to buy Riddle an Xbox. And also, hey, why let a hard fought loss ruin a good time?

“Once I’d lost I could do what I wanted and relax,” he says. “So I have a mansion in Las Vegas with 15 other dudes, and I was just drinking all the time and eating pizza and tacos. Think about it—you’re sitting next to a world champion [Quinton Jackson] in the morning, you leave, go drink some Jäger, come back and then you spar with Rampage. It doesn’t get any cooler than that.”

Except maybe doing what nobody expected—going 3-0 to start his career in the UFC, the first three official fights on his pro record. After beating Dante Rivera in the TUF Finale, he decisioned welterweights Steve Bruno and Dan Cramer. Things were going along swimmingly for Riddle, as he was even granted a request to fight his next opponent in England, where he wanted to go.

As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for.

“It was one of the crappiest trips I’ve ever taken,” he says. “It rained every day, and then I lost. Honestly, after going 3-0 in the Octagon I was really confident and they gave me this Nick [Osipczak] kid, and I was like hey, another easy win. I just thought he was some Brit I could take down on the ground and smash for three rounds and finish. But he ended up getting on top of me in the third round and putting the beats on me. He came prepared.”

With his first loss now in the rearview mirror, Riddle says he won’t let history repeat itself as he get set to face Greg Soto at UFC 111 on March 27. He admits to taking breaks during his training for Osipczak, a day off here, a skipped session there, but this time is preparing three times a day five days a week and “twice on Saturday.” In other words, his old routine with renewed diligence. Riddle says he is completely zeroed in on the dangerous grappler, Soto (7-0), who is making his Octagon debut in the place of the injured Ricardo Funch.

“With Soto, he’s very Jiu-Jitsu oriented,” he says. “I’ve seen a couple of his fights, and his wins are usually by submission. He’s taking people down or he gets taken down and he gets a submission. He likes to shoot in every fight I’ve seen, or somebody shoots in on him. I haven’t seen him throw a single punch on his feet. So I’m going to make it a stand-up fight and hopefully beat him up there.”

Even though Riddle is originally from the East Coast, his enthusiasm for a hometown reception was dampened a bit when the New Jersey native Soto signed on. Though he doesn’t expect a complete disaster on fight night when it comes to fan reaction, he also knows that Soto is Kurt Pellegrino’s charge, and that Kurt Pellegrino is to New Jersey what Rocky is to Philly.

“I know Kurt sells like 500 tickets for every fight, so the audience will be packed with Pellegrino fans and they’ll come to cheer on this kid,” he says. “I do have a lot of friends in that area, too, but it’s a matter of if they’ll show up to cheer me on or not. I don’t have the best friends.”