Former Ultimate Fighter winner, Ryan Bader, is heading into the final fight of his current UFC contract when he takes on Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in the main event of UFC Fight Night 100.
Although Bader admits that the UFC attempted to sign him to a new deal before the bout, ‘Darth’ admits he wants to test the free agency waters because, as he put it,‘Why not?’ Here’s what he said, (courtesy LowKickMMA):
“It’s just one of those things where you’re like ‘Why not? “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.'”
The bout with Nogueira will be a rematch of the pair’s initial match-up at UFC 119 in 2010, where Bader took home a unanimous decision win over ‘Little Nog’ for the victory.
Bader is feeling extremely confident going into the contest, which has sparked Nogueira to promise to bring Bader back down to earth with a second round knockout victory in front of his native crowd of Brazil. Bader is coming off of a nasty second round flying knee knockout over Illir Latifi in Germany, this past December, steadily making his way back to the championship picture.
Nogueira is coming off of an impressive first-round knockout of his own in Brazil, as he took out Patrick Cummins with a nasty TKO in his home country this past May.
With a win over Bader, who has only lost to current title challenger Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson in the past three years, the former Pride veteran could also see himself being discussed for a title opportunity down the line.
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.
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