Ryan Bader had a controversial night on Saturday.
The current Bellator Heavyweight Champion’s match against Cheick Kongo ended in a no contest due to Bader poking his challenger in the eye.
The Bellator Heavyweight Champion believes Kongo took the easy way out as Bader was easily dominating the fight early on; however, former Quinton Jackson seems to view the situation differently, as the former UFC Heavyweight Champion rushed the ring and squabbled with Bader.
Bader discussed the overall match-up and expressed his disappointment with Kongo taking the easy way out, along with the confrontation with Jackson after the fight (transcript courtesy of
mmafighting.com):
“I was walking out and there’s this big fat guy (Jackson) there when the gate opened up. He’s saying, ‘You did that s**t on purpose.’ He’s trying to fight me. I didn’t even know what was going on. He just came at me. F**k you. It is what it is. Then I walked back and said, ‘Let’s go.’ He got held back by my dad.”
Bader said he’d be open to fighting Jackson again, who he beat via unanimous decision in a 2012 UFC fight in Saitama, Japan, when both were light heavyweights:
”Obviously, it would have to be at super heavyweight. Sure, why not? It’ll be easier than the Kongo fight.”
Could we see the former UFC stars fight once again? Hopefully we’ll find out soon.