Jake Hager, better known from his WWE days as Jack Swagger, will look to follow-up on his impressive mixed martial arts debut on May 11 when he competes at Bellator 221 in Chicago, Illinois.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Hager’s opponent has not been announced yet, though he was called out by heavyweight Tyrell Fortune on Saturday night at Bellator 216 after beating Ryan Pokryfky via first-round TKO.
“I’ll take Hager,” Fortune said. “I feel like he leapfrogged over me and he doesn’t deserve where he’s at,” Fortune said.
“When he had his fight everybody was telling him that he was the best wrestler in the heavyweight division,” he continued. “I think that’s false. I don’t think he deserves where he’s at.”
Hager spotted Fortune’s comments on Instagram and left the comment, “Ribbit Ribbit B—.”
With R-Truth leading him out to the cage while rapping his theme music, Hager defeated J.W. Kiser via submission (arm-triangle choke) in the first round of his debut fight at Bellator 214.
On Friday Hager was a guest on the E&C Pod of Awesomeness, where he told Edge and Christian about his final days before leaving the WWE.
“I knew I was gonna do MMA. Before I left, Vince caught me in the hallway and he told me that they were wasting me. I said, ‘Man, that’s awesome to hear. Thank you for saying that. I’ll be in your office next week with ideas.’ I pitched to him an idea about leaving and having to go fight MMA, and then come back, but have a little controversy between us or something,” Hager said. “He didn’t really want to do anything about it.”
“After that — not with him — but with everyone else, communication sort of broke down, so I was like, ‘OK, it’s time to go.’ It was on my mind. I wanted to do it (MMA) then,” he added.
Hager also discussed the support he’s received from fellow wrestlers and fans since his new career venture started.
“It really made this thing, I don’t know, it really put a special feeling on the whole thing,” he said. “It was really pretty cool. I knew that the wrestling fans were gonna stand up for me. Thank you guys for that. I knew you guys had my back. In MMA or wherever, you guys believed in me. I did not expect all my friends that I had worked with over the last 10-12 years to respond that way….gosh, man that’s one thing I let slip through the cracks…how amazing it felt to have that. It’s really special.”
H/T WrestleZone
