Ryan Bader Says Fighting Anthony Johnson Doesn’t Make Sense
Ryan Bader has been calling out UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier ever since “DC” won the title back at UFC 187.
Coming off a win over Rashad Evans at UFC 192, Bader has one thing in mind. A title shot. However, the UFC can be tricky to say the least when it comes to who receives title shots and who does not. In the case of him not receiving a title shot, Bader will have to fight someone else.
Ariel Helwani of UFC Tonight reported last Wednesday that Anthony Johnson wants to fight Ryan Bader next, but there’s a slight problem. Bader’s camp is still holding out hope that they get the next crack at Cormier.
Bader recently appeared on Submission Radio and stated that he’s not interested in a fight with Anthony Johnson.
“The whole thing with that, you know, some media ran with that,” Bader told Submission Radio. “He just tweeted something about ‘I never said anything about Bader or whatever, but I will take the fight.’ You know for me, I’m looking at fights that make sense right now. He had his shot. Let me get my shot. Gustafsson just had his shot. Who’s in front of me?”
Bader said that due to his five-fight win streak, he should get a title shot and not have to fight against someone else.
“I have a five-fight winning streak right now – the longest one in the UFC in their Light heavyweight [division] by far. So for me, these guys all got to get there shot, and you’re going to keep on recycling them? So I think I deserve it enough to go out there and fight Cormier. Why would I just take the fights just to take a fight?
“Title shots don’t grow on trees, you know? So if you’re offered one, you gotta take that for sure. I don’t want to sit there and be baited into a fight that doesn’t make sense, just to fight. My ultimate goal is to go out there and win that title. It all depends, there’s too many hypotheticals out there. You know, what if, what if? Who knows what happens? We’ll cross that road when Jon Jones‘ situation is given out to the public [in regards to] what’s happening. But as of right now, my mindset is, I’m fighting Daniel Cormier until we hear what happens with Jones. So I don’t know. That’s my mindset right now.”
You can listen to the entire interview here:
