Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American mixed martial artist Ryan Bader.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Ryan DuWayne Bader is an American mixed martial artist currently signed to Bellator MMA where he is the current Bellator Heavyweight Champion, the former Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion, and the winner of the 2018 Bellator Heavyweight World Grand Prix Tournament. At Bellator 214, Bader became the first fighter in Bellator history to become champion in two weight divisions simultaneously. Prior to signing with Bellator, Bader competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in the Light Heavyweight division and he was a cast member and winner of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir. As of May 10, 2022, he is #5 in the Bellator men's pound-for-pound rankings and #3 in the Bellator Light Heavyweight Rankings.
You can call Roy Nelson a wrestler, but he's never fought a dynamic, explosive wrestler.
I won 'The Ultimate Fighter.'
I can control my performance and how I fight.
Look, I love the UFC and I love fighting in the UFC. Gotta make sense, though.
I know Stipe, I trained with him a little bit. He's a good guy but I feel I match up with him well.
I've been through enough competition in amateur wrestling my whole life to know that sometimes you have off nights and you don't perform and chalk it up to that and move on.
We step up and fight the top names that nobody wants to fight. So if I hear people saying, 'oh, you're ducking this or ducking that,' no I haven't ducked anybody.
I've learned from my time in this sport that you only worry about the things you can control.
Years and years ago, Jon Jones was untouchable. You couldn't win a round against him.
My right hand is pretty powerful.
Winning is everything to us, but at the same time you've gotta have exciting fights and keep pushing it in that way.
When I'm a little lighter, I feel faster and I feel better. I thought I needed to be big, but I learned that I'm better off being quicker and more agile, because I still have strength.
I don't put Jardine on a pedestal or worry about any kind of step-up. He's just another fighter standing in the way of me achieving my goal.
Ring rust doesn't affect me too much.
I think ultimately the fans want to see knockouts.
I believe coming up to heavyweight, I can shine. That's where I feel the best in terms of being agile, speed, cardio, all that kind of stuff plus I have the power.
My long-term goal is to become the UFC champion and to hold that 205-pound title. If you're not really in it to do that, why even bother with a sport like this?
To be a two-division champion, it's surreal, man.
Definitely, you don't want a bunch of hooligans representing the sport.
My whole style of wrestling is I like to use the truck double. It's basically a tackle for MMA.
We've always taken every single fight that was offered.
If there's anything I take from Lil' Nog it's respect.
I came into this game a wrestler and that was pretty much it. I was tough, I could take a guy down and beat him up. I threw a good overhand right.
After I started training with some of the best in the world and fighting in the UFC, I started really wanting fights with guys I used to idolize and watch on TV. Guys like Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture.
I believe I can beat everybody at every division, I truly do.
Yea, I really don't lift much during training camp, I just focus on strength and conditioning, but in the time off, that's where I'll really hit the squats and the dead lifts. That's when I tend to put on some weight, get to about 230lbs.
I'm in this sport to win a championship.
The lowest I've ever made - and this was on the prelims - was 35 grand on a fight. I've made upwards of 80 grand on a fight on sponsors.
Some people say I miss a lot of shots, but I'm not missing them, that's how I set them up. I'm not in danger if I don't get a takedown.
In college wrestling we had to make weight every weekend, so it's not bad at all. I get it off easily.
I do believe I'm the best in the world.
I had a great contract coming out of the UFC into Bellator, but it was that second contract that made me really, really happy.
I'm not in the UFC to be mediocre.
If I had the opportunity to fight any fighter, if you'd asked me when I started fighting, it would be Fedor. That aura and mystique about him.
I don't think I need to pick a weight class. I feel like I'm that perfect in between. I have the strength, I have the power to fight at heavyweight and I can drop down to 205.
I think 205 is the place for me. I walk around at 225, 230 at the most, and that's kind of small for a heavyweight. I think 205 is where I'll be.
My mindset has changed. When I was fighting guys like Glover I was second-guessing myself. Am I the best in the world? Do I deserve to be up here. Now I know it.
I love proving people wrong and proving myself right and my coaches.
I'm working on my boxing. I hope people see that.
For me, I feel like every time I go out there, I have to prove something, because whether it's fans or the fighters I'm going to fight potentially or am scheduled to fight, there's always an excuse of why I won.
I'm used to playing the underdog role and the favorite.
I don't like to take any time off because I think with all my time I should be trying to get better.
When I get into the Octagon I look at it as another sparring session kind of.
It really wasn't until halfway through my career that I learned had to jab and to box and to kickbox.
Lil' Nog had some trouble with Jason Brilz primarily because he put a scramble into every position he had. Nogueira would be going for a half guard sweep and Brilz would use his wrestling to create a better position. Nogueira is a very well rounded fighter, but I think the main thing he lacks is a good wrestling base.
I'm really into circuit training. You don't have to do each station for very long. Implementing some free weights, maybe a treadmill if you're at a gym, you can put together your own little circuit. Go hard for five minutes, take a minute break. Maybe do a one minute hard run on the treadmill, right into some pull ups.
One thing I learned in my career is to be patient.
I was pretty one-dimensional, a wrestler.
I believe I'm one fight away at all times from getting a title shot and being up there.
I'm more of a grinder, just get out there and get the job done.
I got to a point I was so focused on getting a title shot all the thought in my head was to go out there and win at all costs, so maybe it made me fight a certain way, maybe take a lot of risks and stuff like that.
I was very new to the sport when I entered 'The Ultimate Fighter' and basically got by on my athletic ability and my wrestling. I've since added a lot more tools to my game and continue to develop as a mixed martial artist.
The wrestling community is a tight community, I love you all.
In my past, I've always had the physical abilities. They were always there, but sometimes the mental side of it - I was younger coming in as a wrestler, didn't know what the hell I was doing on my feet.
I grew up in a bracket sport, in wrestling. You win, that does the talking, you move on.
My wrestling actually helps my striking and my striking helps my wrestling. I just learned how to put it all together through synergy.
I learned boxing and jiu-jitsu from the ground up.
Machida always has his elusiveness and whatnot and Shogun has the tools to beat him.
I get wanting to fight in the UFC. I got my start there. I fought 20 times there.
You think you've got to go out and knock someone out for it to be an impressive win. But it's kind of hard to even know what an impressive win means.