Ryan Bader Says Free Agency Is ‘On The Table’
Former Ultimate Fighter winner Ryan Bader will be stepping into the Octagon this weekend (Saturday November 19, 2016) against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in the main event of UFC Fight Night 100 in Brazil.
The contest will be a rematch from the pair’s initial meeting at UFC 119 in which Bader took home a unanimous decision win in 2010. This time, however, the contest against Nogueira will be the final bout on Bader’s UFC contract after ‘Darth’ has decided to fight out his deal rather than re-sign with the promotion.
Bader recently spoke to MMA Fighting in Brazil to discuss his decision to not re-sign with the UFC and test the free agency market, claiming his reason for choosing to fight out his deal as ‘Why not?’:
“It’s just one of those things where you’re like ‘Why not?,” Bader said. “I see myself fighting in the UFC, but it was just one of those things where it made sense for us to take a fight and just fight it out. Just kind of go from there and bet on yourself. There was no real master plan or intent behind it other than that, just kind of a ‘Why not? Let’s just fight this out.'”
Many former UFC fighters such as Phil Davis, Rory MacDonald, and Chael Sonnen have since departed from the promotion to jump ship to rival promotion Bellator MMA to take better financial deals. While he admits he doesn’t wish to leave the UFC, a jump to Bellator is currently ‘on the table’:
“That’s the beauty about being a free agent, it’s on the table,” Bader explained. “Like I said, I don’t necessarily want to leave the UFC. I love fighting in the UFC, I believe it’s a — it’s where I’ll be, but you never know. It’s on the table so — I’m not even concentrated on that now, I’m just concentrated on the fight at hand. We’ll see after.”
Bader stated that he was offered a deal before taking the fight against Nogueira, but the deal was declined as it wasn’t anything ‘substantially crazy’ that seemed to interest the former NCAA Division I All American:
“Yeah they came in and offered us to resign, but it was nothing substantially crazy so we just kind of declined and said we’re gonna fight it out, and it is what it is,” Bader said. “Like I said there is no kind of intent behind it, it was just kind of like ‘Why not?’ You know? It’s my 18th, 19th fight in the UFC, let’s just get to that point and hopefully have a little more leverage and just kind of go from there.”
While Bader acknowledges that a big win over Nogueira in Brazil would help with negotiations with the UFC going forward, he is always going into a fight looking to get the win in order to boost his stock:
“It doesn’t hurt me,” he said. “Going out there and losing, it’s not gonna help ya. Winning, yeah it’ll help somewhat, but — like I said it’s just one of those things where it was my last fight and we just said ‘Hey, let’s just fight it out. Why not?’ Like I said there is no big master plan behind it. Every fight going out there and winning is gonna boost your stock so it’s no different with this one.”
If Bader is able to emerge victorious this weekend he will have won two in a row since being knocked out by current UFC light heavyweight title challenger Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson in January, in which his five-fight win streak that ‘Darth’ had compiled since 2013. A win over Nogueira would certainly put Bader back on track towards his hopes of contesting for a UFC belt down the road.
Bader and Nogueira will meet in the main event of UFC Fight Night 100 live on FS1, from the Ginásio do Ibirapuera arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil on November 19, 2016.
You can check out Bader’s full interview with MMA Fighting here:
