Coach Believes Ryan Bader Can Finish Daniel Cormier In “Champ Champ” Superfight

Ryan Bader is the first-ever “Champ Champ” in Bellator mixed martial arts (MMA) history.

Bader, already the light heavyweight champion for the promotion, captured the company’s heavyweight title last month. “””Darth” knocked out Fedor Emelianenko in the main event of Bellator 214 to make promotion history. Now, Bader is currently on a seven-fight win streak in his MMA career. Recently, Bader’s coach, Jair Lourenco, spoke to MMA Fighting to talk about his fighter’s recent successes.

The topic of a fight with now-former UFC “Champ Champ” Daniel Cormier came up. If the pair were to share the cage, it would be the first ever major cross-promotional MMA fight in history:

“That’s the fight we wanted. That’s the fight everybody wanted,” Lourenco said. “It’s an old rivalry, and it would be the first champ-champ vs. champ-champ cross-promotion in MMA history. That only happens in boxing. That’s a fight I wanted to see.”

Lourenco believes Bader has a good shot at finishing “DC”, but he’s also more than capable of going five rounds with the former heavyweight champion as well:

“I believe that a five-round fight would be a great scenario for us,” Lourenco said. “Bader does great in five-round fights, but they both have heavy hands. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a war, but I believe Bader has a great chance of finishing him inside five rounds.

“Cormier is a great guy, much respect to him, but I see a good match-up for Bader. Cormier is an excellent wrestler with a good game on short range, the same game Bader does well. Cormier did more in pure wrestling, but Bader’s wrestling in great for MMA.”