Ryan Bader remains a free agent following his win over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira recently.
The former Ultimate Fighter winner positioned himself nicely by scoring a second win over the Brazilian, especially considering the current state of the light heavyweight division.
After the win, “Darth” mentioned his desire to sign a new contract and compete for the UFC title, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t hearing from others wishing to obtain his services.
“I’m still a free agent right now. And over the next week or so, we’re gonna see kind of what we’re doing and what not as far as if we’re going to take any offers elsewhere, getting offers from the UFC, all that kind of stuff,” he said during an interview with Submission Radio. “So we haven’t gone there yet, we’re in the preliminary stages of it. So just kind of waiting right now and we will see. We were gonna wait for that light heavyweight title fight to happen, but obviously that’s pushed back, so we started the process a little earlier than expected.
“Without getting into specifics or anything like that, there’s been interest, for sure. I can’t really talk much about it until this stuff is all done and finalized and what not, but there’s definitely interest out there. So like I said, we’re in the preliminary stages right now, we’re talking to the UFC. It’s one of those things where we (either) get an offer from the UFC or do we go out and test free agency? So we’re in that stage right now.“
Outside of his own contract status, Bader is planning on developing a contact within the newly-formed MMAAA to find out more about the group. One of his good friends is Cain Velasquez, as both are former Arizona State University wrestlers.
“It’s scary for fighters because you look at it and you go, okay, it’s great that we have these big names in there and we’re starting this conversation, we’re starting this whole deal, but what’s going to happen? What’s going to happen going forward? What’s your plans? What actions are you going to put into play here? What’s the first step, what’s the second step? What are you guys trying to get out of it? You know, things like that,” he said. “Are you trying to gather fighters and basically what’s going to be the play? How are you gonna get this accepted? Basically, what it really boils down to is how you’re going to get that accepted by basically the UFC? So I know it’s just getting people on board and all that. But I’d love to hear the steps on that plan.”
