Why Ryan Bader is loving Bellator
Ryan Bader: “So that’s what I love about being over here. I can do things like this.”
Bellator MMA light heavyweight champion and Heavyweight Grand Prix semi-finalist Ryan Bader appeared recently on The MMA Hour, and compared his new home to his time with the UFC.
I’m loving it, I’m having fun, said Bader, as transcribed by Alexander K. Lee for MMA Fighting. I came over to still fight the best guys in the world. I came over, beat Phil Davis, who’s arguably top three across any of the promotions. In Madison Square Garden, huge, huge card.
And then for me, it’s just being able to do things like this. I get asked, ‘Hey, you want to jump in this heavyweight tournament for the heavyweight belt and you get to keep your light heavyweight belt and we’ll see what happens after that?’ Hell yeah, let’s do that. So that’s what I love about being over here. I can do things like this. I’m fighting Matt Mitrione, coming up on Friday and we’re in a grand prix, and we’ve got Fedor and Chael Sonnen on the other side. It’s huge. I get to go try to be a two-division champion.
And Bader likes where would be in a theoretical all-promotion top 10.
It depends what Gustafsson was doing, where they’d want to put him, but I think I’d be one of the No. 1 contenders, said Bader. I beat the guy that’s ranked No. 3, and OSP’s in there, and a couple of other guys. I was always right there. But I think I’d be right under Cormier, Gustafsson being out having [not] fought in so long. They always like to put him above me because of the bigger fights that he had, but I’d be right there.
With a win over Matt Mitrione tonight at Bellator 207, Bader is one fight away from winning the GP and with the Bellator heavyweight belt, and with that would become the first champ champ in promotional history.