Jon Jones has never been shy from engaging in a fight, particularly when his integrity is on the line. The UFC heavyweight champion recently responded to comments made by former WWE and current UFC fighter Matt Riddle stating he beat Jones in high school wrestling.
Riddle’s High School Claim
Riddle, a former state wrestling champion for Saratoga Springs High School in New York, issued the bold claim on an episode of the X-Pac 12360 podcast. Riddle said he defeated Jones twice when the two met in state-level tournaments in 2004, while both were still wrestling at high school. Jones, from Union-Endicott High School, has not lost sight of his wrestling past but was quick to set the record straight.
“I could be the bigger man and let it go, but there’s another side of me that can be extremely petty,” Jones wrote in a comment on social media. “The truth is, I never wrestled Matt. I lost in the state semifinals to Jack Sullivan back in 2004. I actually like Matt as a person and hope he’s doing well. Wishing him all the best.”
Riddle’s Response to Jones
Despite Jones’ dismissive reaction, Riddle continued to speak highly of him during a subsequent interview with The Schmo. While Riddle admitted that Jones was likely to dominate him in a Real American Freestyle (RAF) match, he still referenced their past rivalry, adding, “I did beat Jon Jones back in the day. We have some history… if [RAF] wants to book it, they can. Jon Jones is probably going to smoke my a**. But at the same time, never say never.”
Fans of both fighters are just anxious to chime in at this point. Jones was also criticized for giving any type of response in the comments section when Riddle had done nothing but show respect to the former UFC champion. Jones, however, was unfazed and doubled down on his stand by saying, “A lie drenched in fancy is still a lie.”
Jon Jones is considered one of the greatest mixed martial artists ever, a former two-division UFC champion. His actual in-ring resume is near perfect with the exception of a disqualification loss against Matt Hamill all the way back in 2009, which is still seen by many to be a bad decision. And as Jones’s UFC saga presses forward, there can be no denying that he is a X-factor inside and outside of the cage.
