Issue 167

May 2018

He’s captured one Bellator title, and now he’s taking on the big boys to try and double up his haul of gold.

Fighters who have made the move from the UFC to Bellator have often been expected to clean house in their new promotional home, only to fall on hard times in the Viacom-owned organization.

Benson Henderson has fallen short in two title shots, while Lorenz Larkin lost his first two high-profile bouts. Ryan Bader, on the other hand, was the organization’s standout performer in 2017.

‘Darth’ expected to work his way towards the light heavyweight belt, but an injury to his original opponent meant he landed straight into a title shot on the most high-profile show Bellator has ever done. The contest against old rival Phil Davis may not have been the prettiest, but he got the job done and the first major title of his mixed martial arts career.

An impressive first defense followed and the 34-year-old will now have to contend with Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal in May, but the 205lb title will have to be put on the shelf for that match-up.

Instead, that fight will serve as the final quarter-final of the marquee heavyweight grand prix, which is expected to crown a new heavyweight champion in December.

Despite plying his trade in a lower weight class, the competition began with Bader as second favorite behind the man waiting for him in the semi-finals, Matt Mitrione.

Beyond him lies the potential to become Bellator’s first dual-weight champion, as well as a dream match in the final, as he explains to FO…

Did your first year as a Bellator fighter go about as well as you could have hoped?

Yeah, pretty much. I wasn’t originally scheduled to have a championship bout right off the bat – I was supposed to fight King Mo. He got injured and I got slid right into that championship fight.

Not only that, it was in Madison Square Garden on one of the biggest cards they’ve had, so it was a great experience. Going in there and winning the title at Madison Square Garden in front of friends and family was great.

After I won the title, I had a defense against a tough guy in Linton Vassell and put him away in the second round. It was definitely a great experience and I’m right where I thought I would be and wanted to be.

Following on from two knockouts in the UFC, do you think you’re enjoying the best run of your career right now?

Yeah, I do. I feel like I’m the fighter I could be. I’ve had some good stoppages – a highlight-reel knockout of Ilir Latifi , then I finished (Antonio Rogerio) Nogueira, beat Phil Davis who’s arguably one of the top three in the world and finished a tough Linton Vassell, who I think is extremely underrated and one of the top five guys in the world.

I feel like I’m hitting my stride right now, my body and my mentality is where it needs to be. I’m in a good place right now.

Did you think you’d be reaching these heights at this stage of your career?

Right now, I feel like I’m better than I’ve ever felt. I feel better than I did in my early 20s. I’ve never stopped. I wrestled my entire life, then went into MMA and I’ve been going hard ever since. I feel like my mentality caught up with everything.

Obviously, you’re going to get better, technique-wise, but my mind has caught up to where I believe I’m the best in the world and you’ve got to believe that.

Earlier on in my career, I didn’t know. I feel like I’m the best I’ve ever been at 34 and there’s still more to come.

Did you expect to take part in a heavyweight tournament when you signed with Bellator?

I didn’t know if they were going to do anything like this grand prix, but I did say I was open to different things and stuff like that would intrigue me. As part of moving over to Bellator, it would be awesome to do things like that, fight in Japan, go up to heavyweight.

When my manager asked if I wanted to get involved, I didn’t know the format or who I was fighting, but I moved to Bellator to do stuff like this.

Now I get the opportunity to go for becoming a two-division champ and put my light heavyweight belt on the sideline while I compete in this tournament, then win that heavyweight belt and defend both.

Was King Mo the opponent you wanted in the quarter-finals?

We were supposed to fight before and I believed he’d be next in line regardless, so it was just one of those things where it was like, let’s go ahead and do this!

Have you been impressed by anything you’ve seen in the grand prix so far?

Mitrione is a friend of mine and he looked good on his feet, quick, really agile for a heavyweight… but he got taken down by ‘Big Country’ quite a bit and held on the ground, so there are definitely things I can exploit, but he’s really tough.

I think he’s going to be one of the bigger challenges because he’s athletic and moves well for a heavyweight.

Is there anyone you thought you’d really want to fight when the bracket was announced?

I’d really like to fight Fedor Emelianenko in the final. He was one of my favorite fighters coming up, and to be able to stand across from him, fight him in a grand prix style tournament, in the final, for the heavyweight championship – it doesn’t get any better than that.

As a fan of MMA and as a competitor, that’s the name I look at and think, ‘Let’s try to make that happen.’ I’m going to do my part and we’ll see.

Do you think the grand prix is a good opportunity to flex your striking a little more?

Oh, 100%. I’m always working on my striking. What’s cool about this tournament is that every fighter has a different style. You can go in and fight a wrestler, sluggers, all-around guys. King Mo is totally different to Matt Mitrione and my next opponent will be totally different to him. I’ve been working hard on my stand-up and all facets of MMA, so I’m looking to showcase that. I do believe I’ll have a speed and cardio advantage in this tournament, so I’ll look to exploit my strengths.

Finally, can you explain what you were doing at an Arizona State Sun Devils basketball game with a pair of Pokémon, wearing nothing but your belt?

Oh yeah! ASU basketball came up with this thing called The Curtain of Distraction. If the other team is shooting free throws, they have goofy stuff happen. They realized it was actually working.

The other team was missing a good percentage of their free-throws. Michael Phelps has done it, some other basketball and football players from ASU – so they invited me. I didn’t plan on doing it with a couple of Pikachus, but I was open for anything, so I had my belt on with just some underwear and had some fun with a couple of Pikachus and a shake weight. Unfortunately, they didn’t miss the shot, though.

Did they miss any?

I went out there six or seven times and they hit every single one. I don’t know what else I could have done!

Ryan Bader: Round numbers

• 3: Pac-10 Conference championships out of Arizona State University.
• 9: Years since 'Darth' broke out as the TUF 8 Winner
• 15: UFC 205lbs wins. Only Jon Jones and Chuck Liddell have more
• 6th: Bellator 205lbs champ and third to defend the belt.