INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The pressure wasn’t just on Ryan Bader to win Saturday – it was on him to win, and do it memorably.
Heavyweight champion Bader (31-7 MMA, 9-2 BMMA) stopped all-time MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko (40-7 MMA, 4-3 BMMA) in the first round of their main event rematch at Bellator 290. Bader defended his title with the win and sent “The Last Emperor” into retirement at 46, with a loss.
But he said there was tension that came with the memory of a 35-second knockout win over Emelianenko in 2019, as well as what comes with being a reasonably heavy betting favorite – and knowing most of the fans at Kia Forum near Los Angeles wanted to see Emelianenko go out with a fairytale ending.
“It’s not necessarily being the bad guy,” Bader sad at his post-fight news conference not long after he needed a little more than a half-round to put the legendary Russian away with a TKO. “It’s the pressure that gets put on you because you’re supposed to win. ‘You did it in 35 seconds’ (the first time). ‘He’s this old,’ all that kind of stuff. But I know how dangerous he is. Him in there winging those punches at me, that hard right hand – it’s going to knock anyone out if it connects. I think that’s the biggest part of it was the pressure of you’re supposed to go in there and beat him soundly. Luckily, I did.
“… When it ended, I went up and talked to Fedor a little bit. It’s bittersweet – he’s one of my favorite fighters, for sure. But I had a job to do, and that’s what I did.”
Bellator knew for months that Emelianenko’s next fight likely would be his last. The promotion was in the process of booking his retirement bout in front of his home Russian fans in Moscow’s Red Square for what would have been a potentially historic moment in MMA history.
But when Russia invaded Ukraine and started a war that now is approaching a year old, thinking about putting on a fight card in Russia became an exercise in futility for Bellator.
It wound up on the West Coast, instead, and there was a buildup for his sendoff, as well as many retired MMA luminaries on hand from the early MMA era – ex-fighters like Mark Coleman, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Royce Gracie and Matt Hughes.
And while the talk may have been mostly about Emelianenko’s exit from the sport and not what’s next for Bader, eventually he’ll need to figure out who will be coming after his title.
“I don’t know who’s next. That’s the thing,” Bader said. “I’d like some new blood. I feel like I kind of keep recycling a little bit, and that’s because these guys are good and they work their way back up and the deserve the shot. I haven’t thought about it. I’m just enjoying tonight and then just kind of see. I’d love some new blood. I know (Valentin) Moldavsky and Linton Vassell are fighting (at Bellator 292 in March). That would be the logical one. Some new blood would be nice, but I don’t know who.
“(Moldavsky) had a hard fight, a close fight. I think him and Linton Vassell are right there, and they’re fighting. I fought both of them, and we’d be recycling again. But I’d probably say Moldavsky just based on he beat Linton last time. But Linton’s been on a tear, too. I think that was his first heavyweight fight when he fought Moldavsky. Maybe he found a way to deal with that heavyweight body. … Logically, that would be next, but maybe there’s someone else. Who knows.”
The highest ranked fighter in Bellator’s heavyweight top 10 who hasn’t fought Bader is Steve Mowry (11-0 MMA, 7-0 BMMA), who stayed unbeaten Saturday with a win over the previously undefeated Ali Isaev (9-1 MMA, 0-1 BMMA).
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 290.
