UFC light heavyweight Ryan “Darth” Bader will put his 12-0 record on the line Saturday night against another top prospect in Jon “Bones” Jones as part of the main card for UFC 126: Silva vs. Belfort in Las Vegas.
A shot at UFC gold could very well be on the line for the victor when both men meet, something that Bader has been seeking for awhile. First though, he’s got to get past Jones who holds as much of an impressive record as himself. In Bader’s own words “I’m not going to fight him scared.” Fans should expect a great fight from both of these competitors.
UFC 126 will take place on Feb. 5 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nev. The main card will be shown on pay-per-view Saturday night beginning at 10 PM EST.
“I’m not scared of him,” says Bader. “That’s one thing, I’m not going to fight him scared. He’s fought some really tough guys but every fighter is different. I’m different than Matt Hamill, than (Brandon) Vera, than (Vladimir) Matyushenko; we all present our own problems. For me, I’m a tough wrestler. I have the mental capacity to make it a dogfight and take it in deep water. With my wrestling combined with my knockout power, I bring a lot to the table and even more than what you’ve seen in my last couple of fights…”
“He’s got all the hype and everything but if you put any one of those top ten guys in front of me it’s going to be a dog fight,” he says. “It’s a highly competitive division. When you start looking at those names and who I have to go through to reach my goal, you’ve got to take one fight at a time. It’s a hard division but that’s where I want to be.”
HT: UFC.com