Ryan Bader’s career has gone from strength to strength since his move from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to Bellator MMA, where he has captured the promotion’s heavyweight and light heavyweight titles.
The dual-division champion is currently riding a seven-fight win streak after a successful heavyweight tournament run where he won the heavyweight belt by knocking out Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 214.
“Darth” is currently eyeing future opponents in both the Bellator light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions and has said he wants a rematch against Lyoto Machida so he can avenge his previous loss to him when both men were fighting in the UFC. Bader and Machida met back in August 2012 at UFC on Fox: Shogun vs. Vera where “The Dragon” knocked Bader out cold.
MMAJunkie.com spoke to Bader, who outlined some fights he’d like to have down the line to defend his belts, and said he’d jump at the chance to even the score with “The Dragon” after getting knocked out in their first fight:
“The Chael [Sonnen] fight would’ve been fun for sure, but obviously he’s retired now. I wasn’t thinking about the Mousasi fight too much. I’ve been fighting at heavyweight and he’s two weight classes down. I have so many other things on my plate before we’d even think of that, so he wasn’t on my radar too much. He’s a great fighter but I had other stuff on my plate.
“Machida is definitely a fight I want. I want to get back that loss I had in 2012. That’s a great fight I’m looking forward too. There’s guys at 205 like Nemkov and whatnot. I have some fights. I have at least three fights lined up in my head.”
Bader’s first heavyweight title defense is expected to be against Cheick Kongo in the summer although nothing has officially been announced yet. Machida is coming off an impressive second-round TKO over Sonnen at Bellator 222.