Carlos Ortiz with MMA Fight Coverage speaks with Ryan “Darth” Bader before his first hometown fight ever. Bellator 268 Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix Semifinals slated for Oct 16 at the Footprint Center Phoenix, AZ.
“I haven’t fought here. I have not fought in Phoenix my whole career, 35 fights, and I have been wanting to. They finally made it happen. Arizona is a great place to be.”
When asked about his opponent Corey Anderson who is replacing the Covid stricken Anthony Johnson: “His biggest strength is his output he goes in there and from start to finish he brings it with his wrestling with his striking he is always active. He is not one to sit back. He has pretty strong wrestling he throws a lot of volume and I think he uses that to his advantage with a lot of his opponents who don’t know how to wrestle he puts that wrestling grind on them, gets them tired and he can start landing or whatnot. His weaknesses I would say he is not really great at one thing his wrestling is his bread and butter but with me I feel like I have better MMA wrestling, better wrestling in general I can utilize that against him. I can stop his wrestling I have more power and I think his ability to take big shots are kind of his weakness also.”
Bader tells us that MMA Fight Coverage member Thom Ortiz actually recruited him from Vegas and brought him to Phoenix. “Thom he was my wrestling coach at ASU. His first year was my first year. He came out to Reno where I was at, my parents house and recruited me and we went on to do very well in wrestling. We had a great wrestling program. It’s an amazing place to be. I am still here.”
Being asked about his desire to be and role model and Jon Jones constantly finding himself in trouble: “Being a role model is really important to me. I have three younger kids and I always work with kids from wrestling to different stuff, jiu jitsu, mma, all that kind of stuff, I’ve done that since I was a kid and I want to be a good role model. I want to be the person I am. For me all this MMA stuff is great but after all accolade’s I want to set a good example for my kids and that is not going out there and winning all this stuff its being respectful. It’s being a good person and I want to set that tone for my kids and for other kids that follow me.”
“The Jon Jones situation, man he just can’t keep it together, if its that bad you need to just shut it down. Don’t go out in Vegas if you can’t handle it. You know it’s one of those things where people are looking at you. They know who you are, one mistake, they are going to jump on that. They could potentially try and aggravate you and all that kind of stuff. You have got to have a tight circle and if you’re going to party or whatever do that in your tight circle and leave it be. But you know he is out there in the public eye and one time, yeah, it’s a mistake and everybody is entitled to mistakes, but you can’t constantly be doing this. Who knows what could happen, UFC could be fed up with it and say; hey enough is enough you’re done.”
When questioned on his loss and wanting a rematch with Vadim Nemkov, “At the end of the day I lost. I got kicked in the head and that was it. But I had a lot of stuff leading up to it. I was supposed to fight heavyweight four weeks prior to the fight. They said ‘Hey we can get Nemkov in can you go down to light heavyweight?’ I didn’t know when I was fighting next because it was in the middle of Covid so we just took the fight. I just looked terrible in there so I want to prove to myself, prove to my fans prove to everybody that that wasn’t me in there and get redemption and there is no better way to do that then in a fight where you can potentially win the title and win another Grand Prix for me.”
“October 16th it will be at the Footprint Center its where the Suns play in Phoenix Arizona. You go to Ticketmaster and just look it up for the Bellator Fight October 16 and if the fans want more fights in Arizona show up to this fight, Lets sell it out. Let’s show them that we have a great fan base that Arizona loves MMA. It’s a great show. It’s a great card. And like I said for me it’s the first time I ever fought in the city of Phoenix.”
Bellator MMA 268 Nemkov vs Anglickas Fight Card
Vadim Nemkov vs Julius Anglickas
Ryan ‘Darth’ Bader vs Corey ‘Overtime’ Anderson
Benson ‘Smooth’ Henderson vs Brent Primus
Henry ‘OK’ Corrales vs Vladyslav Parubchenko
Henry Corrales Pre Fight BELLATOR 268
Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov vs Karl ‘King’ Albrektsson
Brett ‘The Pikey’ Johns vs vs Erik ‘El Goyito’ PerezErik Perez
Sullivan ‘Sully’ Cauley 1 – 0 – 0 vs Deon ‘Big Smash’ Clash
Nick ‘Nyquil’ Browne vs Bobby Lee
Mukhamed ‘Cherkes’ Berkhamov vs Jaleel ‘The Realest’ Willis
Jaylon ‘New Breed’ Bates vs Raphael ‘No Mercy’ Montini de Lima
Javier ‘Chunty Boy’ Torres 11 – 5 – 0 vs Gregory ‘The Arubian Assassin’ Milliard
Sumiko ‘Lady Samurai’ Inaba vs Randi ‘Ruthless’ Field
Lance ‘Fearless’ Gibson Jr. vs Raymond Pina
Maria ‘Mouse’ Henderson vs Collette Santiago
PARKING:
Footprint Center features more than 700 parking spaces on its property, including parking for guests with disabilities. Prices for parking vary by event. Please call the Footprint Center Parking Office at 602-379-2003 for specific event parking prices and information. For more information or to purchase parking ahead of time go to https://www.footprintcenter.com/
