Issue 063

June 2010

UFC light heavyweight contender Ryan Bader knows a thing or two about success. During a highly successful collegiate wrestling career at Arizona State University, Bader earned All-American status on two separate occasions and took home three Pac-10 titles.

Like his collegiate teammates Cain Velasquez and C.B. Dollaway, Bader turned to mixed martial arts as a way to feed his competitive drive. Just 21 months after his March 2007 professional debut, Bader was crowned The Ultimate Fighter 8 champion. Now 11-0 in his budding MMA career, Bader is ready to try on another role: underdog.

“Right now, as I keep moving up and fighting better fighters, I think I’m the underdog in every one, so I think the target is on my opponent’s back,” said Bader. “I kind of like that. I like playing that little role – upsetting people and playing the underdog.  

“I never really got to play that role coming up. I was an All-American wrestler, so on the smaller shows I was always favored.”  

The first taste Bader had of the underdog role was in the finals of TUF 8 when he met multiple-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Vinny Magalhaes. While Bader’s run to the tournament finals included impressive wins over current UFC fighters Eliot Marshall, Tom Lawlor and Kyle Kingsbury, most MMA observers felt his wrestling-based style would put ‘Darth’ in danger against Magalhaes’ grappling attack. Instead, Bader needed just 2:18 to claim the season’s tournament crown. “Probably the first fight where I was the underdog was against Vinny Magalhaes,” Bader said. “People thought I would just go out there and get submitted real quick, and I love playing that role.”  

Bader followed up his TUF 8 win with unanimous-decision victories over Eric Schafer and Carmelo Marrero. The victories were one-sided in nature, but they earned Bader only mixed reviews after his inability to earn stoppages in either fight. Perhaps the results should both have been tagged with an asterisk: Bader tore the medial collateral ligament in the first round of his win over Marrero, and Schafer was rocked on multiple occasions but survived the attack with a granite chin.  

Nevertheless, the results left many concerned with Bader’s chances against 205lb gatekeeper Keith Jardine at this past February’s UFC 110 event in Sydney, Australia. “With Keith Jardine, the Las Vegas betting lines had me as the favorite, but most fans thought I would get beat or knocked out or whatever,” Bader said. “I like proving people wrong, and I like playing that role of underdog.”  

Bader did exactly that. After a back-and-forth set of opening rounds, Bader rocked Jardine with a massive right hand, then followed with a flying knee and punishing left hand to seal the result. Jardine collapsed to the canvas, and Bader landed a few more shots before the bout could be waved off at the 2:10 mark of the third and final round.  

Bader said it was the type of win that forces both fans and fighters to take note of his abilities. “It was definitely a step-up for me in competition,” Bader said. “If there were any doubters or anything, it kind of let them know that they’re definitely going to have to take note of me. It was my first kind of real test – a name guy.

“Keith Jardine has been in there with guys like ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Chuck Liddell and all those kind of guys. He’s got experience, he’s got the name and he’s got the toughness. I watched him fight when I first started watching MMA in college. To be able to fight a guy like that and kind of prove myself was awesome, I think legitimizes me and sends a message to the upper echelon of the 205lb division that I’m getting better – and I’m here to stay.”  

And similar to the message his old teammate Velasquez issued with his stunning UFC 110 finish of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Bader believes the style of his win proved his move beyond the simple skill-set normally associated with a collegiate wrestling champ. “There’s nothing better than KO’ing somebody with a punch on the feet,” Bader said. “It’s an amazing feeling, and to do it to somebody like Keith Jardine was a good experience. I proved that I’m dangerous.  

“I’m getting more well rounded every fight. Every time that I’m in there, I get a little bit better at something. To go in there and use your hands and knock somebody out is a great feeling, so I was definitely excited about that.”  

With four straight wins to open his UFC career, Bader now ranks behind only TUF 1 winner Diego Sanchez (six), TUF 2 champ Rashad Evans (five) and TUF 5 victor Nate Diaz (five) in number of wins for a TUF winner to open with in his UFC career.  

Each of those fighters has eventually been able to shed the label of ‘reality show star’, and Bader hopes he’s close to doing the same. “I think there’s a little bit of a stigma associated with being a TUF winner, maybe a little bit of animosity,” Bader said. “I’ve never really seen it, but sometimes you can sense it or feel it. But I think once you prove yourself a little bit outside of that whole realm of The Ultimate Fighter, you definitely are respected. I think I’m moving past that right now. 

“Look at the guys that were on some of the first shows: Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, Keith Jardine and all those guys. I think it just takes a little bit of time for people to kind of respect you as a legitimate guy in the UFC, instead of one of the TUF guys. I think I’m kind of moving past that and proving myself.”  

While Evans, Griffin and TUF 4 winner Matt Serra helped shed the TUF winner tag by eventually earning a UFC title, Bader said he’s not in a rush to get himself a shot at the belt just yet. Instead, at just 26 years old, Bader is simply focused on making himself into the best fighter possible before finally squaring off for the crown. “I’m very happy with my progression,” Bader said. “I’m in no rush. I’m a young fighter, and I have to get better in each and every fight. Even in the gym, I just want to become more well rounded.  

“When I fight for the title – that’s my ultimate goal, to be the champ – when I fight for the title, I want to be the best fighter that I can be at that time. I don’t want to be rushed into anything. I’m just progressing right now in incremental steps, on to better opponents, and just chipping away and climbing up that ladder. That’s perfect for me.”  

Bader’s next opponent has yet to be determined. The light heavyweight prospect was forced to the sideline with a slight hand injury suffered in the bout with Jardine and is awaiting word from UFC matchmaker Joe Silva as to who he’ll face next. “There’s nobody that I have a grudge against or that I want to fight right now,” Bader said. “It’s pretty cliché, but it’s just whoever they put in front of me. My ultimate goal is to be the champ, and whoever they give me is kind of standing in my way, so I’m looking forward to that.”  

Bader and training partners C.B. Dollaway, Jesse Forbes, Aaron Simpson and Ray and Steve Steinbeiss recently broke away from their former host gym at Arizona Combat Sports, though all insist the split was on good terms. With Bader now partnering to create a new camp, he’s also anxious to shed that old tag in favor of a new one. “I definitely think I’m a legitimate contender,” Bader said. “I think I can beat anybody, really. I know I’m still kind of low and still need to prove myself more. But I think with that last fight, and with my previous fight, that I solidified myself in the 205lb division. 

“I’m not just the guy who won The Ultimate Fighter. I’m a legitimate fighter and one of the hardest opponents in the world.”  

With Bader on the cusp of meeting some of the UFC’s highest-profile light heavyweights, the former collegiate champ and TUF winner is ready to once again prove the doubters wrong.  

“I think I kind of moved past the prospect stigma with my last fight,” Bader said. “I feel now, if I keep going up, I’m going to be playing the underdog role every time I go out there. I’m welcoming that.”  

UNDER PRESSURE

While Bader is now 4-0 in the UFC’s light heavyweight division, there was some concern after two consecutive decisions in the organization that he lacked the ability to finish his opponents. Bader answered those concerns with a spectacular UFC finish of Keith Jardine, and Bader admitted it’s sometimes difficult to balance the desire for an entertaining result versus the absolute need for victory.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” Bader said. “You’ve got to get the win, but you’ve got to try and be exciting too. I had two decisions in a row, and I was looking to get a finish in there against Jardine. I almost had a finish with Schafer, but he hung on. In my early career, I’ve had mostly stoppages. It was a little weird – I was looking for a stoppage, and going in with Keith Jardine I knew it was going to be a tough fight. He’s not an easy guy to put away, but you don’t want to be reckless and get out there and not do what you trained for.”  

After two hard-fought rounds, Bader earned the finish in the third. He said patience was the key to the result. “I knew the finish would come, and, in the third round, it did. I caught him with a right hand, then a flying knee and a left hook put him down. I was just kind of being patient, and I knew if I had to open up a little in the third, I’d be fine. I had to do that, but up until then I was patient, and I earned the knockout.”