Ryan Bader maintaining poise while gunning for return
He was driving home from Las Vegas, a seven hour-plus trek through desert and mountains to his home in Tempe,…
He was driving home from Las Vegas, a seven hour-plus trek through desert and mountains to his home in Tempe, Ariz. The connection between cell phone and land line was occasionally disconnected, obscured by jagged topography that decorated his journey from Point A to Point B, but not once did it break Ryan Bader’s thought pattern.
He was at UFC 98 two days prior, not as a participant, but an injured spectator, two months after tearing the medial collateral ligament and posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in round one of a unanimous decision win over Carmelo Marrero at UFC Fight Night 18. It’s easy to curse one’s luck, but for Bader, damage control has been his greatest asset since the first day he donned the tights.