Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Bellator MMA Fighters

3. Ryan Bader

In the mid-2010s, there were some high-profile UFC defectors to Bellator that found the new organization a lot tougher than expected and underperformed relative to expectations, like Benson Henderson and Rory MacDonald. And then there was Bader, who improved and attained his full potential, becoming one of its best champions. Bader was always an outstanding wrestler with bruising ground-and-pound, good cardio and a deadly right cross, but he added an outstanding, unorthodox left hook, almost a casting punch at times, and shored up his defense, making it more difficult to take advantage of his one clear weakness, a shaky chin. Bader began his Bellator career in style, challenging fellow former elite UFC contender Phil Davis for the light heavyweight title, a rematch of their 2015 fight in the UFC. Like the first, Bader won by a razor-thin split decision, with everyone scoring it 48-47 in either man's favor. Bader would defend just once, stopping the very dangerous Linton Vassell in the second round, before moving up to heavyweight and becoming Bellator's first two-division champion. He needed just 15 seconds to knock out Muhammad Lawal with the aforementioned left hook, beat Matt Mitrione from pillar to post for 15 minutes and then disposed of the greatest heavyweight ever, Fedor Emelianenko, in just 35 seconds. Emelianenko was certainly past his prime at the time but keep in mind that the loss to Bader was the only setback in his last five fights, against several highlight-reel knockouts in fights where he was an underdog, most recently against Tim Johnson. Unfortunately, Bader found that light heavyweight was a tougher division than heavyweight, and at 37 years old, started feeling his own age. First, he lost his 205-pound crown to Emelianenko’s top protégé and Sherdog's No. 1 light heavyweight Vadim Nemkov via second-round knockout. Then, he was knocked out in under a minute by Corey Anderson, who might well be the second-best light heavyweight in the world. Returning to heavyweight, Bader won a five-round decision against another FedorTeam representative, interim champion Valentin Moldavsky, though honesty compels me to note that most media and fans scored it for the Russian. He then then won a clear decision over Cheick Kongo. At 39 years old, Bader is past his prime and unlikely to move up, only down, but he has certainly left a large mark on Bellator, especially as its first champ-champ.

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