Ed Ruth, a 3-time NCAA champion and 2016 Olympic hopeful, has recently followed in the footsteps of amateur wrestling stars, Shawn Bunch, Aaron Pico and Bubba Jenkins, by signing on with Bellator to make his switch to mixed martial arts. Ruth’s path toward a career in mixed martial arts began with a stint as former champion Jon Jones’ main wrestling training partner, for his title defence against Daniel Cormier at UFC 182.
Unlike Jon Jones however, Ruth has elected to join Viacom-owned Bellator MMA. In an interview with Sherdog, Ruth cites the UFC’s current sponsorship situation as a major reason behind his decision to sign for their rivals.
“It was a big reason just because whoever I want to have on me or just be represented on my shorts or whatever, I will be wearing in the cage. That was huge,” he said. “[If] I want to put time and effort into getting sponsorships, branching out and developing relationships with other companies, I can do that.”
Ruth went on to elaborate upon his issues with the Reebok sponsorship deal, before concluding that he feels that he can make more money than the $2,500 that the UFC will offer debutant fighters under the system:
“I didn’t really pay too much attention to the tiers, but from what I understand it was $2,500 for the first fight to five fights and then they go up from there,” Ruth told Sherdog.com. “Being a wrestler, the numbers we see, they kind of don’t go up that quick. But still, somebody with my background and my credentials, everybody’s just looking to make as much as they possibly can. That was one of the big things for me. I was like, ‘Man, I can do a lot better than that.'”