MMA News: Ryan Bader says he would love to fight Phil Davis for Bellator title

What’s the story?

The 33 year old American mixed martial artist Ryan Bader is apparently on his way to the UFC’s biggest rival, Bellator MMA. Bader last defeated Antonio Nogueira at a UFC fight night in Brazil. He had refused to sign a new UFC contract and is currently a free agent and there have been some rumors that he is joining Bellator.

Adding fuel to the fire, he recently commented on the possibility of signing for the promotion and also talked about a light-heavyweight title fight against Phil Davis.

According to Mmanews.com, Bader was quoted stating the following:

“I’d love to step in and fight Phil Davis again for the Bellator title, or barring a fight between Anthony Johnson and Daniel Cormier, I’m right there as well. But there are a lot of really interesting match-ups for me in Bellator. They have a guy I beat in Phil Davis holding the belt, but there are a lot of other names on their roster I’d love to mix it up with.”

In case you didn’t know...

Bader once fought and defeated Davis before at UFC on Fox 14. It was a close back-and-forth battle with Bader getting his hand-raised at the end of the fight in a controversial split-decision victory (29-28,28-29,29-28).

Some stats from their previous fight: Davis went for 15 take-downs over the course of the 3 round fight but couldn’t even land a single one.

The heart of the matter

Bader in his recent statements has revealed that he opted to fight out his UFC contract because he was being under-paid and also because of a lack of a title shot. UFC have often been criticized for notoriously under-paying their fighters.

UFC have recently lost out fighters like Rory Macdonald,Phil Davis,etc to Bellator MMA and Bader will soon join the list of fighters who have switched UFC in favor of Bellator.

What next?

Bellator is known to offer fighters good contracts financially. They have made it a habit of signing the most popular and hottest free agents with most of them coming from UFC. If Bader signs with Bellator he would surely be put into a title match against Davis soon to cash-in on the huge popularity of both the fighters. With former Champion Liam McGeary also in the mix, it could be an interesting few months for Bellator up ahead.

Sportskeeda’s Take

Bader joining Bellator might take him a step closer towards winning a professional MMA title belt. He will also be getting a much better contract financially than compared to what he earns in the UFC currently, one would presume.

Also, competing against the likes of Anthony Johnson, Daniel Cormier and of course, Jon Jones is a daunting prospect than compared to the lesser talent stacked division in Bellator. That may, in the end, help Bader in making up his mins.