The current Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader is skeptical on the future of Bellator. Rumors are looming around the sale of the company and Ryan Bader hopes that he may be able to score a fight against the former UFC champion Francis Ngannou.
Bellator has provided MMA fans with some of our favorite moments and fighters. However there are growing concerns surrounding the sale of the company and Ryan Bader himself doesn’t know if the company will continue. Ryan Bader claimed the Bellator heavyweight title from Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 214. He was scheduled to fight October 7th this year at Bellator 300. However bad luck struck as his opponent Linton Vassel had to pull out due to illness.
With an interview done with MMA Fighting, Bader adressed his current situation. ‘I’ve had some talks with my manager about what ifs, but really nobody knows what’s happening. ‘So what can you do, keep that on the outside and take care of your job. Put yourself in the best position moving forward with a merger or who knows what happens. Are we all free agents? Are we merging with the PFL? We don’t know.’
Many rumors have circulated around the the sale of Bellator and the supposed buyer is rumored to be the PFL. Bader continued, ‘You can think of all different scenarios, but none of them may be true. What we have to do is keep our heads down and think about the fight infront of us and put ourselves in the best position to get your contract picked up, or if you are a free agent, a new contract. Being the heavyweight champion has a little bit of weight going into that.’
Ryan Bader vs Francis Ngannou?
As the rumors of Bellator being bought by the PFL continue, a very interesting match up has sparked up. In May the PFL made the huge announcement that they had signed the former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. As the Bellator heavyweight champion, it would be correct to assume that the fight to make would be between the two baddest heavyweights outside the UFC.
Ryan Bader addressed this in his interview. ‘(Ngannou) has a minimum, and that’s anybody that fights him gets 2 million. You go in there as the champion and negotiate your terms too, that’s a nice little payday and something you work toward. Something like that’s definitely on the line, so maybe this is happening at the right time for the right reason. Obviously we’ve got to see how things shake out, but it seems to be happening at the right moment. It’s one of the things I’m talking about. If this merger or whatever comes to happen, that’s the big money fight and it’s something that’s very very interesting.’
Quotes via MMA Fighting
Obviously Francis Ngannou has the big boxing match against the Gypsy King Tyson Fury. This would slow the negotiations of any fight within the PFL. In fact, Ngannou hasn’t even had a fight within the PFL yet. We don’t even know if the PFL will buy Bellator. But no matter what, Ryan Bader is certainly ready for the ending of Bellator and is certainly thinking ahead. Will Bellator be bought by the PFL? Let us know in the comments below!
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