Ken Shamrock, Dave Bautista, Bobby Lashley, Brock Lesnar and CM Punk have all tried their respective hands at mixed martial arts, and now it seems Ryback is the next professional wrestler to make his way to the cage.

Last month, Flocombat reported that former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) superstar Ryback, whose real name is Ryan Reeves, was in ongoing negotiations with Bellator MMA and that he was “hopeful” that the two parties could come to an agreement.

Following that report, Reeves appeared on the SiriusXM Busted Open radio show and gave a further update on the negotiations.

“Bellator has reached out,” Reeves said. “They definitely want me to fight for them. That would probably be in a year’s time. I can’t make an honest decision on that until at least January when I’m sitting with my nutrition company and the website and the book. I have my hands in too many jars right now. As a business man, I am absolutely open to the idea of it. It just has to be the right fit for me.”

Early training footage of Reeves has emerged and has been posted to social media. Suffice to say, the learning curve for the former WWE man appears to be steep.


While Reeves may have plenty to learn, he’s well aware of the journey ahead and he’s going to use the lessons he learned from his friend CM Punk to navigate the pitfalls he fell into.

“I give Punk a lot of credit for the courage that he showed,” Reeves said. “But they [UFC] made a lot of key mistakes with him. He’s not a physical specimen who’s going to manhandle anybody. He needs to really, really have all his cards lined up for that to go well.

“He bit off more than he can chew going up against Mickey Gall for his first fight. I believe I’m truly an entirely different human being and I will dedicate myself 8, 10, 12 hours a day to whatever I have to do if I choose to go that route.”