Ryan Bader would not mind fighting more in the UFC.
Before he was a two-division champion in Bellator, Heavyweight Bader was a top candidate in the light heavyweight division of the UFC where he went 15-5.
Outside the late Anthony 'Rumble' Johnson, Bader is only defeated by former world champions, including the current heavyweight King Jon Jones.
Bader has been fighting under the Bellator Banner in recent years and won two belts with several title defenses before the promotion was finally taken over by PFL in 2023.
The American became a free agent last year after a TKO loss for the then Renan Ferreira.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty images
Ryan Bader's Last Dance
Bader's next fight would be 40th as a professional and at the age of 41 he knows that he is about to retire.
Yet 'Darth' Bader believes that he has more fighting in him and says there is a 70% chance that he will compete again in MMA.
“I want to do another one,” said the former Bellator champion at Submission Radio.
“We will even go through a few chances that look pretty nice. I still see myself a kind of, at least farewell MMA fight.
“I'm always going to compete, whether it is struggling whether something cools comes along, in terms of boxing or something similar.”
Bader says that his last fight should be heavyweight.
Ryan Bader Open for UFC Retirement Fight
Although a promotion such as the GFL seems like a realistic next option for the free agent, since the majority of their selection are former UFC stars, Bader is also open to the idea of a UFC decay after all those years.
“My manager and I, we talked a bit about it and talked about how cool it would be, full circle, come back and at least retire in the UFC,” Bader said.
“I even have one fight. I don't know if they do that to do that, but it is absolutely, we have thought about it and it would be a cool scenario, but we will just see if that will even come across our plate.”
“I don't want to fight there five times and what not; UFC looks at it, it would be, okay, so what are you doing? To get a fight to retire?
“So that comes across my desk, certainly open,” Bader said about another UFC fight.
The UFC usually does not sign hunters older than 35, but they have done this more often in recent years. Bellator signed the promotion Michael 'Venom' page on 36 and Patricio Pitbull on 37.
With regard to contracts with one fight, Jeremy Stephens, 38, was again signed for a special one-and-do-do deal for his return home at UFC des Moines.
We will see if 'the ultimate hunter 8' winner Ryan Bader will have the same kind of opportunities in his forty.
Bader has victories over people like Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Rashad Evans, Phil Davis (twice), Antônio Rogério Nogueira (twice) among many others.
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