MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Ryan Bader On Jon Jones Latest Arrest, Corey Anderson, and the Best Light Heavyweight in MMA

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

Ryan Bader joins The Fighter vs. The Writer as co-host for episode 7 as he discusses the fallout from Jon Jones' latest arrest after the former UFC light heavyweight champion was taken into custody on charges of domestic violence and injuring or disabling a vehicle. Plus he'll discuss his upcoming fight against Corey Anderson, his pick for Jan Blachowicz vs. Glover Teixeira and who should be rated as the No. 1 light heavyweight in the sport. Follow Ryan Bader @RyanBader Follow Damon Martin @DamonMartin Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. Black Friday. Ikea. Bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Welcome back to the Fighter versus the Rider. I am your host, as always, Damon Martin, and I am joined today by the man who will compete in the upcoming.

He's already competing in the upcoming Bellator Light Heavyweight Grand Prix, his next round matchup coming up very soon against Corey Anderson. Of course, he is also the Bellator Heavyweight Champion of the World. Welcome back. Ryan, Bader. Ryan, how are you? I'm doing fantastic. How are you?

I'm fantastic myself. Thank you so much for being here and co-hosting the show with me today. I really appreciate it. Before we get to the fight stuff, I have a very important question to ask you, and I got to put you on the record for this one. Are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. When did you become the meme king?

of Instagram because everyone says Derek Lewis is the Instagram follow you have to do in fighting. I think it's yours because I crack up at your Instagram more than anybody else's right now. Honestly, I usually just put them in my stories. Maybe I'll put them in my main deal, you know, but, you know, stuff that I found funny, you know, I don't know, probably like four months ago or something. I started kind of posting on my stories. And then if there were days that I didn't post. Like I got all these messages like, dude, where's the memes at? And they got pissed at me.

I'm like, man, I guess I got to keep it up. And then I started getting messages like, man, your memes make my day in the morning. I say, and drink my coffee. You know, I laugh. I feel good. You know, and so I'm like, man, there's a greater good to be had here. So I just kind of continued it. Yeah, I have absolutely screenshoted and stolen so many memes from your page that I send

to people because I'm just like cracking up laughing and dying. I was just like, I don't know where you find him. Like, don't tell me your secret, but I'm just like, where is he final? That's all I do, you know, the ones that I find, like, funny, you know, you get, like, say you have, like, 30 of them. The ones I really find funny, I'll just kind of narrow that down. You know, I'm all about quality, not quantity. Yeah. Now, here's the real question.

Does Daisy find them as hilarious as I do? Because I know you tag your wife in a lot of those. Yeah. She does them, too. She's probably just dirty with me. But, yeah, we have fun with it. they kind of go back and forth, you know, and we have people messaging us, you know, like you and your husband, you know, keep that up, all that kind of stuff.

And then she obviously gets creepier ones, you know, than me. Like, hey, I'll pay you $1,500 to see your feet kind of deal, but. Oh, well, you know, I guess it takes all kinds to make the world go around, right? Right. So, Ryan, before we get to anything else, you've got a big fight coming up. Corey Anderson next round of the Grand Prix. Of course, you've known this fight was going to happen since, you know, months of since both of you picked up wins,

but how is everything going? I know you and Corey know each other because you have trained together in the past. Yeah, we trained quite a while ago. Kind of trained twice. I brought him in for Phil Davis when I fight. I thought Phil once in UFC, once in Bellator, you know. And so the second time, I was in Bellator.

He was in UFC, you know, so I didn't think much of it at all. You know, and that was like five or six years ago, you know. And then I feel. figured we'd run into each other in UFC, you know, but then, you know, when I left and I figured that was the end of it. And then when he came over, I knew we were going to potentially fight because, you know, he's one of the top guys. I'm the top guy. So, you know, here we are. Have you, I mean, not that you need to see what he's done just in his last couple of Bellator fights, but have you been impressed by what you've seen out of him in his last couple of wins? Yeah, you know, in Bellator,

he kind of came in. He fought, you know, not knocking on him, but, you know, he fought a guy that a striker that, you know, hasn't done that well, you know, and then he fought kind of a relatively no-name dude, you know, tough guy, but, you know, I haven't seen him kind of go up against, you know, like the Phil Davis's of the division and that kind of stuff, you know, but I've been impressed with him. I've always been impressed with him. He's got a great work ethic. He trains hard. He puts in the work and, you know, he brings it during fight time. And, you know, overall, he's a good guy. You know, the thing about Corey and, uh, and this is not a knock on him. You know, he loves to use his wrestling, and he does it very well. We have seen him knock

people out. He got Johnny Walker. I think he shocked everyone with that, the way he fought that fight and got that knockout, but I think he's best known for his wrestling. And I know I've said some form of this to you many times in the past, Ryan, but I feel like when it comes to MMA wrestling, you're one of the best of the business. Everyone wanted to bring up that narrative of you and Phil Davis. And I said, well, I love Phil. Phil's a great fighter, but I think you're a better and then a wrestler than him, and we've seen that play out in a couple different fights with you, too. Do you feel like there's a little bit of that same narrative in this one? Corey's a great wrestler, great grappler, you're better.

Yeah, I definitely do, you know, and it's a style of wrestling too. You know, he's not really an explosive wrestler. He's kind of a grinding, you know, he shoots kind of from far away, you know, his arms are outstretched, you know, he's not running through you, he's running you to the cage. You know, he's not like a Phil Davis where Phil wants you to take down. gets you, you know, he explodes and gets his long arms on me, and he's putting you down right away, you know. Um, you know, and looking back at my career, I've done extremely well when I fought fellow, fellow wrestlers, you know, and, uh, you know, those are the fights I think I have most of my

knockouts, you know, with is, is those, those wrestlers, you know, so, um, I do believe I have a, distinct advantage in that department, you know, he's good, he's a grinder, he goes in, he's, he's, he's well conditioned, you know, but I'm one of the, if not the best conditioned guy, you know, in that division also. So I just feel wherever it goes, you know, I kind of have that advantage. Yeah. And we talk about the power on the feet. I mean, of course, we know you have huge knockout power on. You've shown that throughout your entire career. But we've also seen that kind of break guys when a guy can't get a takedown, when he can't try it out wrestling, those kind of things. It does kind of break their spirit a little bit. Do you think that is a key component

with Corey, if he can't get you down, if he's, if he's reaching for those takedowns and he doesn't get him, you can't you? You can kind of see a guy's spirit break a little bit in there, can't you? A hundred percent. I don't think that'll be a case with him because, you know, he's had those fights where, you know, he brings a volume. They might not be, you know, knockout shots every time, but he has a lot of volume. I don't think he'll break. You know, he has a pretty tough mindset, you know, and you got to put him away. But I definitely feel, I feel that in a lot of my fights, you know, where, you know, okay, I saw that, I felt that, you know, that point when they're tired or they're like, man, I don't want to be in here anymore, you know, that's, well,

kind of, I have kind of a sense about that, you know, in every fight I kind of feel when that's a time, you know, whether that's, you know, I'm on top of them, grind them out and can put them away with, you know, ground and pound or whatnot or on the feet, you know, I definitely feel that in a lot of those fights when they're like, man, is this going to continue for, you know, four more rounds, man, I don't know if I can do it. So I feel that moment for sure. And I know training isn't fighting, but you felt Corey. You know what it's like to train with him. You know his strengths and things like that. And of course, you're expecting him to come in, you know, better prepared, try to throw in a few, you know, tricks of the trade that he's learned since you guys train together.

But the reality is it can't hurt that you've actually felt him in there. You know what his strengths are. You know how he feels in there, his link, things like that. I mean, those are little things that can play a factor to fight, right? Yeah, 100%. You know, I don't take too much from training, really, you know, but I fight and train with those guys, that type of style every single day. You know, we have a bunch of wrestlers. I have guys that are wrestlers with better striking and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I've been doing that since the beginning of my career, you know, with all the All-Americans from ASU and all that coming in. And so I've, it's not like it was my last fight with Machita where, all right, I haven't seen that a lot. I don't

have those kind of partners, you know. I have his style of partners that have had for, you know 15 plus years you know so it's going to be nothing new at all yeah before this grand pre started we did an interview and i said in an ideal world you know it could be a bit of the you know the ryan beta revenge tour depending on how this plays out because you had a couple of guys on the bracket that you know potentially you had losses to it you could potentially get those back now unfortunately we know anthony anthony johnson's out and we got vadeem nincoff fighting julius anglicus absolutely nothing whatsoever against julius he's undefeated in Bellator, you know, good fighter,

but we can't deny that he's going to be a massive underdog against Vanilla Dimkov. Is there any, I mean, again, it doesn't matter to you because you were going to fight the winner either way, but is there any disappointment that you don't get to see that Anthony Johnson Nimcoff fight? Yeah, I definitely wanted to see that, you know, for my personal reasons as far as, you know,

it didn't matter who won. You know, I make it to the finals on that side. If they were fighting, it's perfect, because I get redemption regardless. you know, and so I wanted to see how that fight played out also, you know. So we'll see, you never know, like when something happens like this, you know, with Julius coming in, you know, it's prime time for upsets too, you know. But I do hope Nemcoff makes it to the finals and I can go out there and kind of relive

the heavyweight grand prix, go out there, you know, beat him, beat the champion and get my light heavyweight belt back. It would be that much sweeter. if I would have had a automatic rematch, which you were kind of like about to ask for and talk about a little bit, it wouldn't be as sweet as I, as what I'm doing right now,

going through a tournament, we meet in the finals, and I beat him that way. You, I know, and you're not an excuse, guys, so I know that about you, but I know that you did have to go through a real body transformation after fighting at heavyweight for so long and then going back down to light heavyweight

and then having that fight with Nimcoff. Do you feel like you are back to being a, true light heavyweight now and do you feel like that is going to be a factor against Corey Anderson and it could be a big factor in the Nimcoff rematch as well again I know you're not an excuse guy but but your body I mean you were fighting in heavyweight for quite a while yeah oh I'm not excuse guy and at the end of day you know I did get kicked in the head you know and I signed up for that fight so it is what it is but here are some excuses you know uh you know I told her my MCL almost completely like 12 13 weeks before that fight I'm like

all right, it's all good. You know, I was sitting around high 230s, almost 240, and I couldn't grapple at all. I couldn't do any of that stuff until about four weeks prior. And I'm like, it's all good. I'm a heavyweight, strong enough, I'm fast enough. I'm just, it's during COVID. I don't know what I'm going to fight again, so I'm going to take this fight.

Figuring it was at heavyweight. And then four weeks prior, they're like, hey, we can get an MCOP into the country. You know, it's going to be at light heavyweight. And I was like, oh, shit, there we go. You know, and so I just didn't feel like myself in there at all. You usually see me aggressive and all that. I was kind of laxidaisical. I felt laxadaisical.

My cardio felt good, but I was just kind of like, I wasn't in that fight. And afterwards, you know, the coach was kind of saying the same thing. I'm like, yeah, I mean, it is what it is. You know, I took that fight. Should I have pulled out? Probably. But there was so much variables and so much unknowns out there as far as, all right, what happens if everything shuts down and we can't fight at all?

You know, I need to take this fight. So it was one of those things where, yeah, I want to get it back because I want to approve myself, prove the fans, everything that wasn't me in there, and get another shot, basically. But, you know, I took that fight and got a head kick. Yeah. Well, in a weird way, it kind of plays out this way. I mean, you get the toughest opponent you could get on this side of the bracket.

I mean, Corey Henderson is as legit as they get. And he was the top five light heavyweight in the UFC before leaving. So you get a win over him and then potentially fight Nimcoff in the finals to get that a bit of revenge. It's almost like the perfect story, right? Oh, 100%. You know, and it was fun to get in there with Machita, you know, and beat him, get redemption there. And then with Corey, you know, that's a great matchup.

I think with Corey and I, you know, Phil Davis and I, we have terrible fights together. It's just, it is what it is, you know, styles and everything, you know. But I think the way Corey is and matches up with my style, I think it's going to be a great fight. One of those fights that I look forward to the fans are going to like and everything here in my, you know, home state and everything. So I'm looking forward to it. I'm glad that he's over here on our side, you know, and I like those fights with the name fighters. You know, if the other guy would have won, you know,

good luck pronounce his name, but, you know, it wouldn't be as big, you know. It's like, okay, you're supposed to beat that guy, even though he's tough. But so I'm looking forward to this matchup. I don't want to, I don't want to disrespect Julius by making it sound like he's just, you know, a speed bump in the way. But I just don't see him beating Nimcove. it's not a knock on him. I do believe Nimcoff is a beast.

I mean, there's no shame in that. Like I said, when you lost the Nimcoff, I didn't think it was, and I told you this, you know, off the air and on the air, I didn't think it would look like you. It didn't look like the Ryan Bader we all know in that cage at night. But that being said, Nimcoff is an animal and good for him.

I just don't see Julius, you know, beating him. I just think this is, I think it's one of those matchups where it's like, yeah, it could be an upset, but I don't see it happening. Do you agree? Yeah, I agree. You know, definitely. You know, Nemcoff is, he has very good for work. He's good everywhere, you know.

Julius has taken this fight on, I think, four weeks notice, you know. And so it's one of those things where, yeah, at the end of the spectrum, he has nothing to lose, though, going out there, you know. And like I said, this is kind of a prime setup, too, for an upset. You never know. These big fights like that, sometimes you're like, that happens, you know. But regardless, yeah, I think Dempcoff is going to go out there and definitely win. Yeah.

I know you kind of joke about it that you and Phil Davis never have great fights but Phil Davis is one of those guys where it's like he's never the most exciting guy but he always finds a way to get it done and you look at his fights with Nimcault but then you look at what he just did to UL Romero. U.L. Romero had all this height behind him everyone said oh my God UL's this beast

and Phil beat that split decision was a joke by the way that was not a split decision but like there's another example like Phil Davis is one of those guys you just no one beats him easily like no one goes out And dominates Phil Davis. Not at all. I like Phil Davis a lot.

And he, I mean, he goes out there and he finds a way to win. You know, a lot of his fights might not be the most exciting or whatnot. But he's a beast, man. And I really liked his fight with Yol. You know, I talked to him a little bit. I'm like, man, you look, you know, freaking amazing out there, you know. And I thought that fight was, I liked that fight a lot, you know.

And he did everything perfect in that fight, you know. So he's a beast, you know, and he's always one of those guys that are right there. you know, you know, his fights with Nemcov, both of them were pretty close. A few different things, you know, changes, you know, taking him down in the first or second round could have won him that fight. Yeah. You know, it's funny when this Grand Prix kicked off, and here's what we're going to have to start a little bit of a debate here, because when the Grand Prix kicked off, you know,

I asked you this question, I said, do you believe the winner of this tournament will 100% be the best light heavyweight in the sport? And when you looked at the field, it was hard to argue against that. When you looked at, you know, Anthony Johnson and you looked at Nimcock, if you looked at you, Corey, you had the records for you and Anthony and Corey in the UFC, so you could compare that. You know, Corey had a win over Jan Blahovic. Of course, I know he also lost to Jan, so I don't want to take that away from him,

but they had the split series. Anthony's history in the UFC's only losses coming to, you know, Daniel Cormey. Of course, you had a long history in the UFC and then what you'd also done in Bellator. Now, Anthony and Yuel kind of dropping out, you know, I'll admit it. It didn't kind of bum me out that that didn't happen. And I think you and Corey, you know, is still a very big fight. Nemcoff's still out there. Do you still believe the winner of this tournament is the best light heavyweight in the sport?

Or has Jan Blahovich done enough to where you could see the argument now? Man, I don't love to sit here and be like, oh, we have the best or, you know, whoever wins is the best. You never know. But at the end of day, if you don't think that myself, Corey or Nemcoff can go in there and beat Yon, you're crazy. You know, any, those fights are toss-ups. you know, any one of us can go and beat yon, you know. And, you know, Glover's fighting Yon too. He could be the champion, you know.

So I don't love to get into that debate because you never know. And it's kind of, you know, it's fruitless because we're not going to do a cross-promotion, you know. But like I said, any one of us, us three right now can go in there and potentially beat them. Yeah, there's, there is real, I mean, let's be honest, Ryan, there is UFC bias. There's no doubt about that. Yeah, 100%. I mean, I think, and I've said this, and I, listen, I think Alexander Volcanowski's an animal. What he just did with Brian Ortega was a fantastic fight. Kud, I mean, I think he's amazing. I think A.J. McKee is the best featherweight in the sport. And I think right now, if you're asking me to rank it, I would put Jan Blahovic number one just because of what he's done his last couple of fights. But, you know, in a few months when this tournament's over, let's say you go out and beat Corey Anderson and you beat Nimcoff, you get your revenge in that match. The debate's a lot harder at that point because they do have two more marquee wins, you know what I mean? Like I think at that point, it is a legitimate debate because as great as Jan has looked and he's looked amazing and I love Jan Blahovic, nicest guy in the world and on an incredible streak.

If you were able to go out and beat Machita, you know, Anderson and Nimcoff back to back to back, that's a pretty damn impressive streak. Yeah, for sure. You know, styles make fights too. And, you know, I definitely think I can go in there. I don't think I would go in there and obviously strike with him, but take him down, beat him up on the ground and all that kind of stuff, you know. Yeah, and I agree with you too. You know, he should be up there, number one.

Because, you know, let's face it, UFC, has a deeper pool, you know, as a deeper division. You know, he beat, he beat Izzy too, you know. And so, yeah, I mean, that's no problem at all, you know. But at the end of the day, you go out there and win of this tournament. you know, I definitely believe they go in there and, you know, and beat that UFC current champion, whoever it is, you know. It's one of those fights where, I mean, we're all at the top.

And like you said, you know, if you're not in the UFC, you know, a lot of fans are like, oh, you're shit, you know, but that's not the case. And like you were saying with AJ McKee, all those kind of guys, you know, so it's one of those things that I don't put too much stock in, you know, I just go out there, do my job, like my paycheck and be the best that I can be. Let me ask, you know, kind of talk about he picks and predictions here with the fight coming up between Jan Blahovich and Glover to Cher. I know we've talked about the Glover fight with you many times. That was, in my opinion, a big turning point in your career because that was a fight where you went out there and were, you know, trading leather with a guy like Glover to Cher, and you kind of got away from your wrestling.

And I know you said to me many times that kind of was a wake-up called it like, you can win those fights, but it's a toss-up because you're just, you know, when you're trading bombs with another heavy hitter, anything can happen. and that's what happened. And by wrestling, you've kind of taken that, you know, you've kind of increased your chances of winning, I guess I should say, every time. You've been in there with Glover. You know what that guy can do? He's been on an incredible run.

Do you give him a chance to beat, Yon? 100%. You know, and I think it's, Glover's just really durable. You know, he obviously hits hard and all that kind of stuff, but he has amazing grappling. He has a good takedowns, you know. So I can see if Glover goes in there,

I think he's going to have to withstand the storm a little bit, but if he gets him down on the ground, you know, I think it's going to be a long night for Yon. You know, Glover's tough all the way around. He's one of the more well-rounded fighters, you know. So that's a tough one. I would probably take Glover in that fight, you know. I think he goes out there and beats it, kind of beats him. And then, you know, it kind of sets up his whole career, you know, he's, you know, he's, what is he, 41 years old, you know, he's still top, tip-top shape.

he's looked great and he's been on this run and for him to close it out with the UFC championship you know um you can defend it or whatever he wants to do you know it's kind of like the perfect perfect story for him it's kind of hard in a way not to root for glover considering like i know you know him i know there was no bad blood whatsoever when you follow but he's like one of the nicest guys in the world he's like a true martial artist like you know just embodies martial arts he's never i don't think he's ever said a bad word about anybody i can't remember He's just one of those guys. Like, it's hard not to root for him, but at the same time, you know,

we can't deny what Jan has done. I think the key for me in this fight personally, I think is Yon, if Yon can put the damage on him, he can't overexert himself, though, because Glover is so tough. I mean, Anthony Smith had Glover hurt early, and then, you know, he didn't finish him, and then Glover comes back and just demolishes him later in the fight. I think if Yon hurts him early, he can't go, you know,

balls to the wall, so to speak, because if Glover survives, what are you going to have left in rounds three and four? And Glover's a guy who will be there in rounds three and four. Yeah, that's what I was talking about, that durability. You know, it started the fight could look like he's getting beat up real bad, just like that, you know, the Anthony fight. And then all of a sudden, Tide's turn, and he's in there going the same pace that he was, you know. And like I was saying, too, I think his grappling is underrated.

You know, he's real heavy on top. He's strong, you know, and he knows. how to get to the certain positions where, you know, he can unload or go for a submission to, you know, and so I agree with you 100% there. You know, Yon's got to be careful because Glover is going to be durable. He's going to fight the fifth round like he was fighting the first, you know, and that's why I kind of lean more towards Glover when that fight. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. I am picking Yon to win. I'm very high on Yon right now. I think he's looked really good. And I think there is a certain confidence that he's kind of built

inside of himself being champion. I think that win over Izzy was big. You know, everyone was picking Izzy to be the double champ, and here's Izzy's coordination and all these kind of things. And for him to go out there and get that win, I thought that was huge for him just personally. And I still think he is capable of beating Glover. But I agree 100%.

If there's a third round, a fourth round in this fight, fifth round this fight, that's where I start leaning towards Glover. Because I think the longer you let that guy stick around, the more dangerous he gets. No, that's true. Yeah. No, I agree with you, too.

You know, Yon, that confidence is big, you know, going in there and knowing that you're the best in the world, you know, not just all thinking and maybe I am, you know, I feel like he has a confidence now. Like you said, he went in there beat Izzy, you know, and he feels like, all right, I'm the top dog. Nobody can beat me. And when you walk in with that confidence and everything, you know, it's a lot, you know, it carries over for sure in that fight. Absolutely. Now, Ryan, you've fought a lot of guys in your career and you've done a lot of things. And outside of the cage, you've always been, you know, a pretty even-killed guy. You've done a lot of work with the military.

You've done a lot of work for charity, things like that. You've always been a guy to kind of keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble. And it's not to say that makes you a better person than anybody else, but you've always been able to kind of live your life and kind of be the guy, you know, who's not afraid to, you know, got to be a role model, I guess the best way to say it. Unfortunately, one of your former opponents has been in the headlines recently, and that's John Jones, former UFC light heavyweight champion. We've seen, of course, he was arrested recently in charge with the domestic violence charge as well as injuring or disabling a vehicle.

The police report came out. I did the report last week. His fiance had blood on her nose and mouth or mouth and nose and her face. And then the police say he rammed his head into the police cruiser. We got agitated when he was being arrested. I'm not going to condemn the guy because we don't know the full story. Let him have his day in court. but this is once again a really really bad look for john jones and then the last i don't know how much

you pay attention to social media ryan but like he had a one post where he said i'm going to turn this nightmare into the best thing in my life he's doing like weightlifting and he puts out a really weird video where he's like kissing his fiance and it was like this really uncomfortable like i don't know like i understand the point of what he's trying to do maybe although i don't think whoever's doing public like whoever's his publicist should be fired because it's a really terrible look in that situation i'm not here to put him on trial in a legal setting, but we can't

deny this has happened again and again and again with John Jones. And this to me is the worst of it because to me personally, you can't come back from domestic violence. I just, I don't, there's no excuse for that in any way, shape, or form, especially when you are a trained professional fighter. You do not put your hands on a woman. Ryan, I want to get your

opinion on this because you were around. You were there in those days in the UFC. when he first started kind of getting into trouble, you know, DUIs, things like that. You were there, you were present for. You were part of the division he was in. You fought him, of course, but you also know what that was like.

But now here we are, I think this is, I want to say, his fifth arrest in the last, whatever, 10 years or whatever. I don't know. What do you make in this situation with John Jones? Man, I mean, people make mistakes, right? But if, you know, like I said,

we don't know all the facts or, like you said, actually, don't know all the facts or whatever, you know, but if he did put hands, on, you know, a woman, his fiance, you know, that's the biggest scumbag move you can do. And he should be gone if you did that, you know, plain and simple, you know. But, I mean, people make mistakes, right? But when you keep making them over and over and over again, you know, it's not a mistake anymore. It's a habit, you know, and it's a people around you, too.

He's got to have somebody be like, hey, you know, I know you're in Vegas and you just were at the Hall of Fame deal, got inducted the Hall of Fame, you know, let's just go. in the hotel suite and party or whatever. We don't need to be out. We don't need to be doing this stuff or just like, you know, keep it contained a little while, you know. And I think it's the people around them, you know, that need to step up too, you know.

Obviously mistakes are going to be made. You know, when you keep making them, something's got to change, you know. When you go to Vegas, maybe don't go out, you know, go out around your friends or something at home or whatever it is. And he's got a lot of eyeballs on them. you know and so you just have to be more careful because every single person is going to wait for you to make a mistake now you know and so um i think moral the story if he did put his hands on a woman he should he should be done you know um don't know all the facts but

it keeps happening over and over again with him getting in trouble you know he's got he's got to he's got to tighten it up yeah well there like he came out of the statement where he said something about you know i can't be around alcohol i can't do alcohol and i understand that. Listen, not everyone, I get that. I'm sympathetic to addiction. I've been around addiction my whole life, but I drink. I mean, I bow partying. I'm not going to let a secret go. There may have been a UFC event in Louisville a few years ago where I think I may have even had a couple beers with the current Bellator heavyweight champion. But none of that resulted in either one of us, you know, doing really stupid, you know, things. Neither one was, you know, drove drunk. You know, neither one of us hit anybody. You know,

mean like I understand I completely insombedic to the addiction part of it I am I get it but just being addicted still doesn't excuse you for the things you do you know in that situation and for John it's happened so many times like it's like okay your first DUI I get it man okay you made a mistake 24 years old you're on top of the world you know you became champion everyone's giving you all this accolated I get it I understand I'm not saying excuses but I understand it but then when it just keeps escalating like a hit and run from 25 15, you think that would be the breaking point, right? He got his title stripped, you know, then he gets arrested again last year.

Now this, and again, I'm not condemning him, but I'm saying if you put your hands on a woman, that's it. At some point, like the whole it's a mistake or second chances. Like there's got to be a breaking point, right? Like, we can't just keep saying he made a mistake. Like, you don't put your hands on a woman and say it's a mistake. No, I mean, if that is true, you know, putting hands on a woman and all that, like I said, that should be it, right? I mean, I've had friends, too, you know, being around crazy-ass wrestlers my whole life and all that, you know, especially when you're younger, you know, so I've had friends, they start drinking, they'll end up 300 miles away in Tijuana or something like that, you know. And but you get to a certain point where, all right, that's enough.

Where you get to a certain age, we're like, okay, alcohol is a problem. I'm not going to drink. Or if I'm going to drink, I'm going to drink, you know, with my wife or with my, you know, a couple friends at the house. I'm not going to go anywhere. You know, then you, you compound that where, you know, you're a famous athlete, you're John Jones, one of the best fighters in the world. Everybody's looking at you and noting everything that you do, you know, you got to be super careful. So yeah, I mean, you would think there would be a breaking point. And like you said, he has trouble with alcohol. Don't drink alcohol, you know, especially when you're going,

where you're in Vegas and you have an event, you know, people know you're there, you know. It's just one of those things you got to tighten that up. And yeah, if you want to indulge, do it in a safe place where you know you're not going to get in trouble, you know. But yeah, you know, it goes back into that, you know, putting hands on a female, that's unexcusable. Yeah, and it's also the weird thing about this now

is that you wonder what can be done because you look at the UFC and you say, well, you know, they have some responsibility in this because if John keeps screwing up and he never has to pay the consequences in the cage and yes they did strip his title the one time his first fight back he's fighting for the title again it's not like they said you got to go to the bottom

of the list and come back up again and the other problem is and you and I both know this Ryan if the UFC released him tomorrow within six months some other promotion is going to sign him you know that they're going to give the redemption story they're going to give him the second chance we all know that so like in a weird I understand the UFC's in a tough position because if they release him, then someone else is going to sign him.

But at the same time, if you don't release him, if you don't punish him in some way, shape, or form, you know, how do you go on from that? Like, how do you just continue to let this guy continue to mess up and do these things get a right? I mean, he was just inducted to the freaking UFC Hall of Fame. And 12 hours later, he's in jail and domestic violence charges. Like, at what point do you say, this is just diminishing returns? And the weird thing is right now, and part of the reason I want to ask you this is because you're not in the UFC right now. You can speak much more freely. But like part of the problem right now is John's not the light heavyweight champion.

He's not. Yonbovich is he's not the heavyweight champion. Francis Inganu is the divisions have both kind of moved beyond him. Now I'm not saying John Jones is an amazing fighter. I've considered him the greatest mixed martial artist of all time for a few years. That being said, if they did release him right now, and I'm not saying they should, not telling them what they're doing. I'm just saying that if you don't do anything, it looks really, really bad. It is really, really bad. Um, releasing him right now to me isn't the worst thing in the

world because you're not losing a champion. You're not losing the number one guy. We already know that in Ghan who's going to fight Cyril Ghan. We already know that Yon's fighting Glover. Um, to me, like, and the fact that they're not doing anything is just mind boggling to me. Um, it's just, I understand you're stuck. But right now they're not really stuck in a way. Like, John's not the faces the promotion right now. So it's like, are they really doing more harm than good by not punishing the guy and saying, you know what? You've got to be done with you for a little while. Yeah, I mean, I think you even kind of see it, you know, in Dana's press conferences and all that. They're kind of, they're not moving on from him, but they're kind of like, yeah, you know,

they have other players. You know, Francis came in and has looked amazing. You know, Yon's a champion, all that kind of stuff. And so, yeah, he's really not the face anymore where it used to be like he was the biggest star and you, you know, he did what he did, and that was it, you know, and we'll figure it out, you know, but now there's other people stepping up and there will continue to be other people that make themselves stars, you know, and I do kind of see Dana kind of, not distance himself, but kind of like, you know, you hear statements and all that kind of stuff. Like, we're moving on, we're doing this fight, we're doing this fight. John Jones can text me or call me when he's, you know, whatever, you know, but, and I see both sides,

Do they want to let him go and get picked up by another promotion? You know, probably not. You know, if he does something again and really injures somebody, hurt somebody, you know, is there accountability on the UFC now for, you know, not stepping up and doing anything? So they're in a weird position for sure. But I do think they're in a lot different position than say, you know, five years ago, you know, where he was a man, he was a champion, you know,

and people want to see him go up there and fight and be a double champion at heavyweight and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, they're definitely in a weird position, UFC is. Yeah, well, like I said, we'll have to wait and see that all plays out. In your own career, though, Ryan, you got this big fight coming up. And do you right now, have they told, have they said, I don't think I've heard them say, this fight's in October. Have they said when they want to do the finals? No. They're pretty loosey-goosey with that, you know.

The heavyweight Grand Prix was predetermined. They locked down the dates and we stuck to those dates. And I like that a lot. You know, on this one, they said, all right, the semifinals would be in July. You know, obviously it's now in October. And so it's kind of, you know, I know they've been working through the whole pandemic thing and all that kind of stuff. But I kind of gotten used to it, you know, fight this fight.

And we could be fighting in January or could be fighting in May, you know, so I haven't really heard too much. Do you want to be double champ again? because and the reason I asked that is you you were doing it and you were the double champ but we also saw me now I know the last the nymcalf fight wasn't under great circumstance you just talked about it you thought you're fighting the heavyweight four weeks out there like oh cut to 205 that's the whole other animal but like now that you've gone through like do you want to be double champ again or do you think if you won the light heavyweight title you would make a decision and say I'm only going to be in one division or the other um I want to do whatever is in front of me It's not, I already had the double champ status. It's not necessarily like I want to hold both belts at the same time. You know, that's not a huge deal for me. I'm always kind of looking in the short term like, all right, it's Corey Anderson, then it's whoever wins that fight.

And yeah, I want to win those fights and I want to get that light heavyweight belt. As long as Beltor has been cool with, as they have been, you know, being double champ and being able to keep belts. And because I've done everything they've asked, I've fought every week class, you know, After beat Fadar, am I going back to light heavyweight? No, can you do a heavyweight? Sure, boom, did that. You know, and then you want to come down to this light heavyweight tournament,

you know, try for, you know, the light heavyweight title. I said, sure, you know, you can keep your heavyweight belt. We might do an interim belt, whatever. Like, that's fine with me, you know. So as long as they're still cool with that as far as allowing me to keep both belts and jump from one division to the other, I'm fine. you know but as soon as they start tighten that up and all that kind of stuff

you know I might I might decide you know which weight classified in I know we've talked about this many times I'll close that on this listen your career you're you're obviously you know what the best light heavy weights in the world one of the best heavy weights in the world so you're not going anywhere anytime soon but you've had a great relationship with Bellator

and I know that's been compounded by multiple contracts at this point the way you feel about everything and I know never say never do you think Bellator will be the last promotion you fight for? Yeah, I think so. I love it over here. I get paid very, very, very well. Contracts great.

It wouldn't make sense to go anywhere else. You know, when I had a contract up after Fador, you know, and I had some interests, you know, from every organization, including UOC, and Belator made me an offer where I couldn't leave at all. So I'm happy where I'm at. The one thing maybe I would like to do, you know, I always wanted potentially maybe jump in the Showtime boxing ring or something like that

and do some cool stuff like that, different stuff. But we'll see. But I believe that Bellator will be my last promotion. So you want to knock out Jake Paul? Is what you telling me right now? Is that what you're telling you? I'll fight them. Yeah, I'll fight any of those guys.

You know, I just think it would be fun. I don't want to go in there and fight a top-ranked boxer, you know, but I would like to go in there. And I've always, you know, since the beginning of my career, I always want to do a boxing match. I never got to do, you know, some of my other training partners kind of did like, you know, the different boxing matches and stuff. And I always wanted to try that, but I never had the opportunity. So that might be something down the road. And obviously Showtime and we're with Showtime now.

And so it could be some different. I'm all about doing different cool stuff, like going up to heavyweight and fighting the Grand Prix, doing this light Heavyweight Grand Prix, ability to get two titles, all that kind of stuff. I've done it all in mixed racial arts. And so when any of these new opportunities kind of pop up, I'm all for it. You know, it gets me motivated. Yeah, I know I've talked, I actually talked to Jake about this. I want to say before it's fight with Woodley.

And he said, I'd love to do cross-promotion, bringing over some M&A guys, have them fight on my car, that kind of stuff. And I know Stephen Espinoza has said, you know, now that Bellator is with Showtime, like he would like the chance to like, you know, do a, you know, bring, you know, cross-over. So the opportunity is there. You actually work for a promotion that I think would allow you to do that. unlike the UFC and you actually have like a real legit boxing promoter as part of your company now. Yeah, that's where kind of where my mind was going, you know, when we, when Showtime kind of picked us up, you know,

and so it just have to be one of those things where it had to make sense, you know. I'm not going to lose money to go box, you know. I'd really just find another MMA fight, you know. So it would have to be the right matchup and all that kind of stuff, right payday. Yeah, I'll headline it tomorrow. Ryan, Ryan Bader calls out Deonté Wilder for boxing match. I'll just go ahead and put that out there. There we go.

Hey, if they pay me enough, I'll get in there with them. Yeah, if they pay me enough, I'll get in there. Trust me. I don't want to find, if they pay me enough, I'll get in knocked out in six seconds. I got six seconds to spare for like $6 million. Exactly. Ryan, it is always a pleasure, my friend. I really appreciate you doing this.

Again, best of luck with your training camp. I know things are pretty much kind of wrapped up at this point. I think I saw the other day you said your last big sparring session. So, you know, safe travels out to the fight. Best of luck. And thank you, as always for doing this, man. I really do appreciate it. It was fun, but it needs time, of course.

Talk to you soon. Bye soon, buddy. Bye-bye. Ryan Bader, there you go. He's fighting coming up. Corey Anderson, Bellator, great fight. I have a little disappointed. We're not going to see the Anthony Johnson-Nimcoff fight,

but I think it's going to be interesting. I think we will end up seeing Ryan Bader against Nimcoff in a rematch in the finals. No offense. I love Corey Anderson. I do think Ryan Bader will win that fight, but we'll see what happens. Big thank you to Ryan Bader for coming on.

I appreciate it. Make sure you're checking us out on all of your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. You can also find us over, of course, on MMAFighting.com. I want to say a big thank you once again to Ryan Bader. And thank you to each and every one of you that tunes in to the Fighter versus the writer each and every week. We will see you next week. Thanks for tuning in.

We'll see you then. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.