MMA heavyweight Ryan Bader, who once almost fought Daniel Cormier, predicts how the fight would go now

Ryan Bader once came close to fighting Daniel Cormier in the UFC, but the bout never materialized. Now, with the rise of the Global Fight League (GFL), Bader weighed in on how the matchup would play out if both fighters were to sign with the new promotion.

In a recent appearance on Submission Radio, Bader expressed interest in finally facing Cormier but questioned whether it would happen outside the UFC:

“Man, that would be fun. But something like that, why don’t you just go do it in the UFC? You know? Unless they’re throwing around crazy money in GFL. And GFL actually happens, but yeah, I’m open to stuff like that. That’s a fun fight. That’s one of those ones that kind of fell through the cracks and never got to happen. So those are the kind of ones that I’m looking for. For sure.”

Reflecting on how the fight might go, Bader acknowledged Cormier’s superior wrestling credentials but emphasized his own evolution in MMA:

"It obviously be a tough fight. You know, he's good at what I'm good at. Um, you can say even better in his wrestling credentials, but different in MMA, you know, um, so I just think it'd be a fun fight as far as you know, testing those two you know skills, wrestling basically, um, and then throwing obviously some punches in there. You know, I can hit hard... it's always fun to kind of throw around here and there, you know, um, like we said, if that opportunity comes around, hell yeah, but I doubt that it would.”

Check out Ryan Bader's comments below (17:59):

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Ryan Bader weighs in on Dwayne Johnson’s MMA training for upcoming Mark Kerr movie

Dwayne Johnson’s dedication to his role in The Smashing Machine has impressed former two-weight Bellator champion Ryan Bader. The film, set to release later this year, follows the story of former UFC fighter Mark Kerr, whose career was overshadowed by painkiller addiction.

To prepare, Johnson underwent an intense MMA training camp, working with real fighters to refine his skills. The film features several cameos from combat sports stars, including boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk, who plays Igor Vovchanchyn. Bader himself portrays UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman.

Having fought legends like Jon Jones and Fedor Emelianenko, Bader has a trained eye for fight skills. Speaking to Submission Radio in the aforementioned interview, he praised Johnson’s work ethic:

“I’m not gonna say he was out there looking like a guy who has been fighting for 20 years, but he obviously works hard. He went in there and did a training camp with real MMA fighters to get his skill set to look good. I’ve seen a little bit of the playbacks, and they look good. Like I said, he worked super, super hard and was actually in great shape, like he always is. Big old dude.”

Check out Ryan Bader's comments below (4:43):