Ryan Bader has been well on his way towards a UFC Light Heavyweight title shot as of late, however even he admits that his final stop along the way could be a problem.
As announced recently, Bader will fight former title contender Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in his next fight. If he wants a crack at the 205-pound title, not only does “Darth” Bader have to get past Johnson, but he must do so in impressive fashion.
And therein lies the problem.
Bader spoke about his gameplan for the Rumble fight during his appearance on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour” at MMAFighting.com.
“I feel like its a ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ kind of scenario here. Because you go out and fight Johnson, you know what he has. He is explosive and he hits hard, especially in the first round, he is going to come out blazing. Me fighting him any other time, or any time, really, the game plan would be to go in there and do what [Daniel] Cormier did to him. I’m on him, taking him down. If I don’t finish him, then it will go back to how many decisions and the win wasn’t spectacular. So, no, we’re going to put someone else in the title shot. So, I feel like I’m kind of in that corner. I’d be dumb to go out there and stand toe-to-toe with him the first couple of minutes. I feel like I’m in a weird place right there, but for me, I don’t even care right now. I’m going to do what I need to do to go out there and win. Then I can go from there, the next fight or whatnot; go out there, throw my wrestling away and start banging with guys. But, I won five fights in a row, I’m there this is what I’ve trained for. I’ve been taught my whole life to win at all costs. So that is my mentality right now.”
Ryan Bader vs. Anthony Johnson headlines UFC On FOX 18, which is scheduled for Saturday, January 30, 2016 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
