What Next For Ryan Bader

What Next For Ryan Bader

By Michael Sampey 

Ryan Bader has had a great and highly respectable MMA career to date and has truly been allowed the opportunity and platform to flourish under the Bellator promotion, but fans, and even Ryan himself, are wondering what could be next for the Bellator ‘champ champ’

Bader won the 205-pound gold in his Bellator debut by defeating Phil Davis via split decision and defended with a second-round finish over Linton Vassell, however, “Darth” didn’t think twice when Bellator announced its plans to hold a heavyweight grand prix in which he couldn’t have performed any better.

In an eight-month span, Bader dominated Matt Mitrione and knocked out ‘King Mo’, Lawal and arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time, Fedor Emelianenko, in a combined time of 50 seconds to win his second belt and hold both the light heavyweight and heavyweight titles simultaneously.

Following Bader’s incredible tournament run, barely getting punched throughout the entire heavyweight grand prix and winning 12 of his last 13 fights over former UFC, Price, Strikeforce and Bellator titleholders, Power MMA head coach, Jair Lourenco, sees him ready to prove he’s better than the UFC’s heavyweight king, Daniel Cormier.

‘DC’ and ‘Darth’ were booked to fight in 2015, but Cormier was shifted to a title fight with Anthony Johnson instead. Bader was riding a four-fight win streak at the time and added another one to his record over Rashad Evans months later, but the collision with Cormier never came to fruition.

Lourenco said on the possible matchup between Bader and Cormier, “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.”

Both Bellator and the UFC have yet to announce who’s next for the champions.