Ryan Bader makes it very clear he is not scared of Cheick Kongo and will rematch him after he defends his light heavyweight title.
In the main event of Bellator 226 last September, Bader was looking for his first title defense at heavyweight against Kongo. Early on the champ-champ was having success yet there was an accidental eye poke leaving Kongo unable to continue and the fight ended in a no-contest.
Since the fight, Bader has made it clear there was no accidental eye poke. Kongo, meanwhile, has said “Darth” was looking for a way out of the fight, which Bader denies.
“We would’ve done an immediate rematch. But, Bellator wants the light heavyweight title defended. They asked me to stay at heavyweight after the grand prix. After the Kongo fight, it was always going to be a light heavyweight fight. I’ll rematch him 100 percent, there is no questions asked,” Bader said to BJPENN.com. “He’s the one who keeps whining about an eye poke that never happened. He’s saying I’m scared after beating his ass for a three and a half minutes. I don’t get his thought process, but I’ll rematch him, I don’t care.”
After the fight, Bader and Kongo were trash-talking one another when Kongo’s teammate in Rampage Jackson came in and shoved Bader. So for Darth, he says he’ll even fight Jackson at 205 next just to beat him up again.
“Hell yeah, I’ll fight him at light heavyweight next if he’ll get down. Have Rampage get down to 205 and we’ll do a title fight in a month and a half, two months,” he said. “I’m down for everything cause that night was bizarre. First off, I would never intentionally poke someone in the eye. But, there was no poke in the eye. Look at the evidence, there was not one camera angle that shows an eye poke.”
Whether or not Rampage Jackson would be able to get down to 205 pounds is to be seen. But, Bader wants that fight and a rematch against Kongo very soon.
Would you be interested in seeing Ryan Bader rematch Cheick Kongo and fight Rampage Jackson?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 5/14/2020.