Looking back at Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter, it seems obvious now: Bader should have never been counted as the underdog, especially leading into the Finale against Vinicius (Vinny) Magalhaes.
He was the first pick for Team Nogueira (second pick overall, behind the much-feared Krzysztof Soszynski). His record at the time (7-0) speaks volumes over some of the other top contenders: Soszynski (15-8-1), Magalhaes (2-2) and Eliot Marshall (5-1) — volumes because if someone can figure out a way to beat Soszynski and Magalhaes half the time, neither fighter is exactly “safe money.”
But perhaps most importantly, Bader is a two-time Division 1 All-American wrestler and three-time Pac-10 Champion. His 120 wins rank 8th all-time for Arizona State University — more than teammates C.B. Dollaway and Cain Velasquez, and more than nearly all of the 100+ Sun Devil All-Americans.
Sure, Magalhaes walked through all of his opponents with first round submissions — including an impressive armbar over “The Polish Experiment,” the overall favorite to win the light heavyweight tournament.
But there’s something that “Darth” Bader has that none of his TUF 8 competitors have — and I’m not talking about a better nickname. He’s a winner. Just like the Pittsburgh Steelers, the U.S. Armed Forces and Batman at the box office, you don’t bet against winners. That’s the only smart money advice you’ll ever need to hear.
Tomorrow night at UFC Fight Night 18, Bader (now 8-0) will get the first test of his UFC career since knocking Magalhaes unconscious at the TUF 8 Finale. And it’s not as easy as you might think.
Carmelo Marrero (10-2) is 4-0 (with one no contest) during the last year and a half, including a close split decision victory at WEC 36 over Bader’s teammate, Steve Steinbeiss. A former heavyweight, “The Fury” holds a win over Cheick Kongo and has only ever lost to Gabriel Gonzaga and Wilson Gouveia — two very bad dudes.
Fight Night 18: “Condit vs. Kampmann” goes down tomorrow night, Wednesday, April 1 live from the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tennessee and airs on Spike TV. It serves as the lead-in to The Ultimate Fighter Season 9: “U.S. vs. U.K.”, which will feature lightweights and welterweights from the two countries competing against one another for the coveted six-figure UFC contract.
We recently caught up with Bader, who talked about his upcoming fight with “The Fury,” how he got involved in mixed martial arts in the first place, what it felt like being called the underdog for the first time in his career, and taunting his opponents via text messages before they fight.
Here we go:
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You entered The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 Finale vs. Vinny Magalhaes as the underdog. Did that surprise you?
Ryan Bader: Nah, I knew I was going to come in as the underdog as far as on the internet, on the MMA forums and then on the Vegas betting lines — just from reading stuff and people seeing Vinny take everybody out in the first round convincingly on the ground. Then, knowing I was a wrestler, they figured I was just going to go in there and take him down and get submitted.
But myself and my camp knew better and knew I wasn’t the underdog. But I definitely like playing that underdog role in public. So it was fun.
It was one of the first times that I got to do that. Coming from a good college wrestling background, being an All-American, and fighting in these little shows, I was always the favorite to win, so I never got to play that role. So when I did (against Vinny), it was definitely a fun experience. And to kind of show everybody they were wrong and get The Ultimate Fighter plaque, it was definitely a cool experience.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Do you follow what people are talking about online?
Ryan Bader: Yeah, I get on MMA.tv. I have a little thing there, I post here and there. It’s good for marketing, interact with your fans, if you ever want to put something up. I don’t go to a bunch of other places, but occasionally I do.
Sometimes it’s bad if you’re on there and people are talking a bunch of crap. But you know, I’m an MMA fan also, so I like to go and see what’s going on in the MMA world and watch different videos and whatnot. So I would definitely say I do.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You KO’d Vinny with a fierce right hand. Was that the game plan — to keep it standing and not let Vinny get to the ground?
Ryan Bader: Yeah, if it were to go to the ground, I felt somewhat comfortable, whether it was just to fend off his submission attempts and get back to my feet. We worked a lot. I worked with Nogueira’s coach quite a bit and went over a bunch of different things that he might do, as far as his rubber guard and just staying out of it.
In the training camp, I really didn’t wrestle that much at all, just so I wouldn’t go back to it. So in MMA sparring, I never, I don’t think the whole training camp, went in and took somebody down.
Basically, we’d get in the middle (during) MMA sparring, I would go five rounds with a new person every time. They would come at me, they would try pulling guard, flying armbars, taking me down, and I’d just have to stand the whole time and I can’t even think about taking anybody down.
But it helped out, because sometimes you get into a fight, and it’s your natural reaction as a wrestler to go in there. You get kicked and you follow that leg in there or whatever. And you can see in the fight, when I did get kicked one time, I grabbed it and thought about it real quick — and with the training that I did, I kinda just backed up.
So the game plan was to go in there — I even said it in the UFC interview — go in there and land a big right hand on him and watch him go down. And that’s what happened.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): From a personal perspective, what was your impression of Vinny going into that fight. Did you guys get along in the house?
Ryan Bader: Yeah, he has kinda that Brazilian bravado kinda deal going on, but he’s actually a pretty cool guy as far as when I was hanging out with him. We got along pretty good, we joked around all the time.
I was even joking around with him in text messages before all that. I was telling him I got a new takedown for him, and just kinda messing with his head a little bit.
But we still keep in contact, and he’s a good guy. I liked him.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): I think that’s the first time I’ve heard of a fighter trash talking on text messages leading up to fight. (Laughs)
Ryan Bader: (Laughs) We were friends. You’re stuck in a house with somebody for six weeks, you get to know ‘em pretty well. In that house, you’re fighting people you’re having breakfast with that morning. So it’s really not a big deal. You came here to do something, so let’s do it.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You’re due to face Carmelo Marrero at Fight Night 18 on April 1. The American Top Team member comes from a wrestling background too, having been a two-time heavyweight national tournament qualifier for Rider University. Tell me how you see the two of you measuring up, both on the feet and on the ground.
Ryan Bader: I think I’m a better wrestler than he is. He’s been fighting since 2004, and I just got done wrestling a couple years ago. I was at a higher level of wrestling, I feel.
On the feet I think I have more power. I feel that I’m a little more polished because I’ve been working so hard on my standup.
He’s a tough dude, he’s going to come after me. His wrestling is always pretty good, he has little tricky trips that he does. His submission skills are pretty good.
I watched him fight my training partner in his last fight in the WEC in November. He won a very close split decision to Steve Steinbeiss, who I’m training with now and who’s also on the April 1st card. So I got to see him live and I got to hear from Steve a little bit about him, so that was nice.
But I think he’s definitely a step up in competition. He’s going to come at me and come at me to fight the whole time, (based on) watching his older fights. I’m looking forward to it and getting a little test.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): I was going to ask you about Steinbeiss. Did he help prepare you, in terms of developing a game plan or strategy for this fight?
Ryan Bader: Well there’s only so much you can do as far as a game plan goes, especially with a wrestler. I don’t know if I’m going to be on my back, I don’t know if he’s going to be on his back, or if we’re going to stay standing.
So Steve was helping me, he was telling me when he took (Carmelo) down — Steve was a K-1 kickboxer, the only wrestling that he’s learned is what we’ve taught him, and he’s getting tough now as far as wrestling — but he took Carmelo down and was on top of him. He said he didn’t have much off his back at all, if anything. He said he felt comfortable on his back, (Steve) almost swept him one time, got up, and so …
Had Steve been like, “Oh the guy’s freakishly strong on the ground, you really don’t want to be on your back,” or whatever. But Steve just said that he was fine wherever the fight was, so it was nice to hear a little bit of that.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Marrero used to be a heavyweight. He holds a win over Cheick Kongo. I’m not sure what he walks around at, but given the fact that he used to be a heavyweight and used to walk around heavier than he does now, do you think that size will be a factor at all?
Ryan Bader: No, I think that I’m actually bigger than him right now. I’m 6’2” about 225, 230. I know that when he was fighting at heavyweight, he was about 6’0” 225. So I don’t know if he got any smaller for 205, but size is definitely not going to be a difference at all in this fight. We’re similar size, basically, I’m a couple of inches taller. So it really doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Obviously with your wrestling background, cutting weight isn’t much of an issue at all I would imagine. You said that you’re 225 or 230, is that typically what you walk around at, or do you go heavier than that.
Ryan Bader: No, 230 is pretty much the max, I can get up to maybe 234 after training camp and after a huge meal and a gallon of water. But I stay between 225 and 230. I like to get my weight down to about 220ish when I leave for the fight.
That’s not really hard for me. I’ve been making weight my whole life. I used to make it every weekend in college wrestling. So now it’s kind of a blessing. Maybe once every three or four months I get to weigh in. I get to weigh in the day before — with wrestling it was day of — so I look at this and it’s awesome to be able to do that. So I can’t really bitch at all about that.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Arizona Combat Sports is starting to get a reputation for its up-and-coming fighters. In addition to having WEC Lightweight Champion Jamie Varner and WEC Welterweight Champion Carlos Condit, you have C.B. from TUF7, Jesse Forbes from TUF3, the Steinbeiss brothers, Aaron Simpson, the list goes on. Can you talk about your experience so far with the camp?
Ryan Bader: Our camp, we’re really all close. It’s nice, there aren’t any egos. With other gyms, when you’re done fighting, you’re done, you’re not coming back in. If C.B. has a fight coming up here, we’re all going to be back helping him. He has a fight in July, but if he had a fight sooner, we’d be in there the week after a fight helping him out.
We’re a close-knit group and that’s how we’ve been successful. Having guys there like Aaron and C.B. who I’ve been around for eight plus years wrestling-wise, and having gone through a lot and gone through practice day in and day out with them, we know how each other works.
We know how our bodies respond to different things. If one guy’s having a hard time, we know to go up to him and tell him, “Hey you need to take a day off or something.”
We go hard when it’s time to go hard. We push each other, we’re all highly competitive. So if one person is getting the better of the other person, the other person is trying to get the better of him, and then everybody else in the gym.
We’re all really good friends, so I think that’s what makes us all successful, because we look out for each other and help each other be successful.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): I was checking out the Arizona Combat Sports page and saw the phoenix symbol in the logo on the landing page. I couldn’t tell from the picks online, is that logo similar to the tattoo you have on your upper arm, or is that tat something else?
Ryan Bader: It’s pretty much something else. It’s a little similar. It’s just a phoenix logo, and mine’s an eagle, basically. But no, I didn’t get it from the gym.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Is there a story behind the tattoo, or did you just like the design?
Ryan Bader: Basically all my tattoos, they mean I’m following my dreams, doing what I want to do. I’m not taking into account what other people want me to do. I’m just going to follow my dreams and do what I want and accomplish everything.
I kinda like that. It pushes me day in and day out. I came in and got my degree in college and people ask, “Why don’t you have a job now?” I was going to go to law school. People were pushing me different ways, but I wanted to be an athlete, I wanted to be an MMA fighter.
So when I got the opportunity, I jumped on it. I did what I want to do. I don’t want to be 50 years old, looking back and watching it on TV and going, “I could have been great at that.” I wanted to do it now. If it doesn’t work out for me, I can say I tried it, at least I did it. That’s basically the story behind the tattoos.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): During your days at ASU where you wrestled with teammates Cain Velasquez and C.B. Dollaway, did you guys talk about getting into mixed martial arts together, or was it something that you saw Cain get into it, and you said, this is something I’m interested in, maybe I should pursue it?
Ryan Bader: We would mess around a little bit. Senior year, there was different ways to cut weight. We’d roll around like jiu-jitsu — we didn’t even know what we were doing, but C.B. and I would just roll around in plastics, and try to cut weight. Just a change from the monotonous ways to cut weight in wrestling.
We heavily followed the sport. We knew Cain. Cain was always talking about it. He kept saying, “What else am I going to do? I’m going to go in there and check it out. And see if I can be successful.”
We got back from Nationals, and C.B. and I went down with Cain to Nogales, Mexico. He was going to fight in his first fight a week after getting back from Nationals. He didn’t have anything but wrestling, and maybe hitting some mitts in the ASU wrestling room. So we went down there, and the guy ended up pulling out.
But we knew Cain was going in it right away. I actually went out and got a job. I worked that job for nine months. It was kinda like sales and marketing. I was kinda in the office, I could leave and whatnot. But I just realized that that’s not what I want to do.
I was kind of training basic kick boxing, trying to learn it a little bit — not to fight, just to kinda check it out and keep active. And they came up to me, and they were like, “Hey, you wanna fight?” And I couldn’t fight that time, so C.B. took it, and slammed the guy in like 30 seconds, knocked him out.
Sooner or later I had my first fight. We were all on a card up on an Indian reservation in Arizona, and after that, I fell in love with it. When I had the chance to train full time through a sponsor I jumped on it. I’ve been working toward that ever since until I got on the show.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): I used to live in Flagstaff, I went to grad school at Northern Arizona University, and it’s such a beautiful state. It’s nice to hear the success of Arizona Combat Sports.
Ryan Bader: Thank you. We used to go up and fight at an Indian reservation about an hour north of Phoenix. I can’t remember what it was called.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Was it up there in the Verde Valley?
Ryan Bader: Camp Verde. We fought up there a couple times.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Right on. Well Ryan, thanks a lot for taking the time to talk with us. I wanted to give you an opportunity to plug any sponsors or websites or if you have any parting words for your fans.
Ryan Bader: I just want to say thank you to all the people that supported me. I’ll try to put on a good show on April 1, and hopefully you’ll see a new part of my game.
I got a new website up, it’s www.ryanbader.com. Check that out. A blog’s on there, what’s going on with me right now. There’s videos coming up of us in this training camp sparring with C.B., it escalated a little bit, and we was trying to kill each other. It’s a funny video. And different workout videos, so check that out.
