MMAnytt fick en pratstund med UFC-veteranen inför den uppkommande matchen på UFC on FOX 14 i Stockholm nästa år och vi pratade om både det ena och det andra. Ryan Bader uppgav bland annat att han skulle föredra att galan ägde rum under ”normal” sändningstid istället för mitt i natten, att han siktar på att bli den första att avsluta Phil Davis i oktagonen samt hur tankarna går kring att komma till kalla Norden mitt under vintermånadernas värsta period.
Ryan Bader (18-4) och Phil Davis (13-2) finner sig i ett minst sagt intressant utgångsläge inför mötet på UFC on FOX 14 i Tele2 Arena den 24:e januari nästa år. Som huvudattraktion gör Alexander Gustafsson (16-2) och Anthony Johnson (16-2) som känt upp om vem som utmanar om lätt tungviktstiteln härnäst. I Baders mening kan han och ”Mr. Wonderful” mycket väl komma att tävla om vem som kniper platsen direkt bakom vinnaren, även fast det sannolikt kommer krävas ytterligare en vinst innan titelchansen blir ett faktum.
”It’s probably another fight after that [UFC on FOX 14] for a title shot, unless some people get hurt,” uppgav han. ”There’s kind of a lock-in for the title; you got the number one guy Gustafsson who’s fighting Anthony Johnson, that’s kind of a title-eliminator right there. But you never know, if I go out there and have a impressive victory and some people get hurt, you could be thrown in there. But for me it’s just looking at the fight right here, everything will take care of itself if I go out there and beat Phil. And so that’s kind of my mindset right now. Obviously I wanna be champion, I wanna get that title shot, but you got to take it one fight at a time, you can’t overlook a tough fighter like Davis”.
Fortsättningsvis är han glad över chansen att gå match på samma kort som två av den egna viktklassens främsta utmanare.
”It’s awesome. It kind of puts it in perspective, that you’re right there,” fortsatte Bader. ”These two guys are fighting for the next title shot, we’re right there fighting for a spot in the top four, top five. That’s four guys out of the top ten [in the 205 lbs-division], so it’s exiting, it puts everything in perspective, it kind of gives it a little tournament-feel. Obviously I’m just worried about my fight, but it’s nice to have another fight on that card”.
Att möta just Davis som likt 31-åringen själv kommer från en brottarbakgrund är något han tror kommer resultera i en underhållande match.
”We like this fight, I can’t believe I haven’t fought him before. I think it’s the right time, he’s number five, I’m number seven and so I look to move in to that top five where I wanna be, and keep moving up. I think we match up well as far as for the fans, being a exiting fight. I’ve had a hand-injury I’ve been dealing with for a while, but now everything is a hundred percent healed up and I look to go in there and utilize some different things that I haven’t in the last few fights,” uppgav Bader och fortsatte med att dela med sig av känslorna kring att acceptera matchen med lite mer än en månads notis:
”It’s gone smoothly. We’ve had a bunch of guys training for fights here in the gym and so I’ve been helping them out. I found out about this fight last Wednesday, so I just started training from there, like hard-hard. I’m really training year-around, so training camp for me just means tightening up my diet and doing more cardio and specific opponent training. That’s about it, I train all year-around and we just amp it up. So I’ve just amped it up this week and we’re here at the start of our camp and looking to get better and better and getting our skill set up and looking to be a different fighter than what they’ve seen”.
Hur ställer sig UFC-stjärnan till att ta sig an den långa resan från Tempe, Arizona till kalla Norden mitt under årets mörkaste månad?
”I’m from Arizona and it’s pretty much sunny here all the time, it get’s a little cooler but I wouldn’t say cold,” förklarade han. ”I do well when I travel outside of the country, I fight well and maybe that goes back to my wrestling days when we had to travel every week. But I’m going over there, getting out of the States, out of my comfort zone and just having people around that’s in the same mind set as me, looking to go out there and win, not worried about any other distractions. I’ll enjoy it, I’ll like going over there in the dark, in the cold. I do look forward to going over there in January, and I’m looking forward to fighting in front of that huge crowd”.
Så till den påtagliga frågan om tidsplaneringen inför galan. UFC on FOX 14 äger rum på fel sida av dygnet ur svenska ögon sett för att tillgodose amerikanska TV-tittare och trots att ”Darth” inte precis ser det som ett idealt upplägg finns det inte mycket annat att göra än att helt enkelt gilla läget.
”It would be nice to have it at a regular time, obviously we don’t want to fight at 2 in the morning but we’ll do what we have to do,” berättade Bader. ”I don’t know how it works as far as the television things and contracts, and where FOX want’s it to land and all that, that’s for them to decide. We just have to go out there, and I’m gonna have to definitely figure out how I’m gonna feel the best, whether it’s sleeping in late, waking up later in the day, going to bed late. We’ll figure that out. And for the fans there, all of us are just gonna have to put on real exiting fights to make it worth being there at 3 in the morning watching the UFC”.
Förutsägelser? Båda vad gäller den egna matchen och huvudattraktionen gav Bader väntade svar.
”I think I’m gonna go out there and win. I wanna put on a dominating win, I wanna finish Phil Davis. He hasn’t been finished yet, so I look to go out there and do that. I wanna go out there and knock him out, I wanna be the first person to finish him”, uppgav han innan han delade med sig av tankarna kring den efterlängtade huvudmatchen:
”That could go either way. It’s hard to go against Gustafsson, he’s been looking great lately and he has great boxing, great standup. So does Anthony Johnson, I just think Gustafsson is a little more polished. But Johnson does have that power so that’s a hard one to call. But I’d probably have to go with Gustafsson”.
