Former WWE champ quits Bellator MMA, accuses promotion of ‘jerking him’ around

Jake Hager is no longer a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter.

During a recent interview on Facebook, the former Bellator MMA Heavyweight revealed that he would be giving up that part of his combat career after feeling like he was getting the run around from the promotion.

“Officially, I’m retired from MMA,” he said via MMA News. “I trained hard last year, but Bellator was jerking me off, so I retired and I’m focusing on wrestling now.”

Hager took a break from his professional wrestling career under the WWE banner where he went by the alias of “Jack Swagger” and won multiple titles to give MMA a try, eventually making his Bellator debut in Jan. 2019 and defeating J.W. Kiser at Bellator 214 via first-round submission.

Four months later, Hager went on to defeat T.J. Jones at Bellator 221 — also via arm-triangle choke — before his fight against Anthony Garrett at Bellator 231 later that year was ruled a “No Contest” because of an accidental groin shot. In his final fight at Bellator 250, Hager defeated Brandon Calton via split decision.

Hager will now put all of his focus on pro wrestling under the All Elite Wrestling (AEW) umbrella where he has been competing since 2019.

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