Ryan Bader Thinks He Could Have ‘Done A Lot More’ At UFC Fight Night 47
No. 8-ranked UFC light heavyweight Ryan Bader put an end to rising contender Ovince St. Preux’s hype in decisive fashion last night (Sat., August 16, 2014), smothering “OSP” in the main event of UFC Fight Night 47 from the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine.
While the win, which was Bader’s third in a row since a TKO loss to Glover Teixeira at UFC Fight Night 28, was a telling one for those who had begun to question whether or not “Darth” was truly a top 205-pounder, Bader told FOX Sports that there is much he can improve on:
“It’s rewarding; at the same time, I felt like I could have done a lot more. I didn’t feel as sharp as I wanted to in there but at the end of the day, got the win, and that’s what it’s all about. First five rounder, going the distance; I felt a little flat at the beginning, so, for me, I just had a little gut check, and had to get it done.”
Bader was appearing to fade a bit in the second round, allowing “OSP” to tag him with some hard body shots that seemed to turn the tide. But “Darth” touched on his will to win, and how it propelled him through the later rounds of the grueling affair:
“Coming into this, there’s a time in every fight where you’re just sitting there like, ‘Man, I’m tired.’ But you gotta push through that, and I’ve been pushing through it my whole life. I’ve changed the way I train, changed my body type. So for me, going in there for those five hard rounds, and going hard, I knew I could go in there and push his cardio and make that a factor in my benefit, so that’s what I did.”
Indeed he did, as Bader’s noted wrestling was on full display as he repeatedly drug St. Preux to the mat in Bangor. “OSP” had never been taken down in the Octagon, a testament to former NCAA Division I All-American Bader’s mat acumen.
With a return to his grinding wrestling skills paying big dividends for The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 8 winner Bader, where will the now-seasoned veteran go from here?
