Ryan Bader is happy with being in Bellator’s 2018 heavyweight tournament.
Despite being the light heavyweight title holder, Bader didn’t hesitate when asked if he’d be willing to participate in a heavyweight tourney. During a recent appearance on MMA Junkie Radio, Bader talked about meeting with Bellator officials to get his spot.
“When I first met with them, they were like, ‘Would you be willing to fight in Japan? Would you be willing to go to heavyweight?’ I said yes to all of that. ‘Give me those opportunities.’ So when it presented itself to be in this tournament, we said, ‘Hell yeah, why not? Let’s do it.’”
“Darth” went on to say that despite most of the field being bigger than he is, he isn’t intimidated.
“I can make the case for fighting anyone of those guys would be awesome. It’s one of those stacked tournaments where you look at one paper and you’re like, ‘Man, there’s some big names in here. Big guys.’ But there’s not a guy in there that I’m like, ‘Oh man, he may be too big.’ Or (that) I’m concerned about. I’m going in there to win that thing. So it really doesn’t matter to me.