Quotes from Ryan Bader

I'm not in the UFC to be mediocre.

My right hand is pretty powerful.

Ring rust doesn't affect me too much.

I want to have a belt somewhere.

One thing I learned in my career is to be patient.

I don't put Jardine on a pedestal or worry about any kind of step-up. He's just another fighter standing in the way of me achieving my goal.

My long-term goal is to become the UFC champion and to hold that 205-pound title. If you're not really in it to do that, why even bother with a sport like this?

I haven't had to deal with many negative things in my career. Now, I see, 'You suck. You lost to Tito.'

You have to put your body through hell through training camp, and you've got to be able to take that.

I'm in this sport to win a championship.

To be a two-division champion, it's surreal, man.

I believe coming up to heavyweight, I can shine. That's where I feel the best in terms of being agile, speed, cardio, all that kind of stuff plus I have the power.

Yea, I really don't lift much during training camp, I just focus on strength and conditioning, but in the time off, that's where I'll really hit the squats and the dead lifts. That's when I tend to put on some weight, get to about 230lbs.

Lil' Nog had some trouble with Jason Brilz primarily because he put a scramble into every position he had. Nogueira would be going for a half guard sweep and Brilz would use his wrestling to create a better position. Nogueira is a very well rounded fighter, but I think the main thing he lacks is a good wrestling base.

My wrestling actually helps my striking and my striking helps my wrestling. I just learned how to put it all together through synergy.

For me, I feel like every time I go out there, I have to prove something, because whether it's fans or the fighters I'm going to fight potentially or am scheduled to fight, there's always an excuse of why I won.

I had a great contract coming out of the UFC into Bellator, but it was that second contract that made me really, really happy.

I got to a point I was so focused on getting a title shot all the thought in my head was to go out there and win at all costs, so maybe it made me fight a certain way, maybe take a lot of risks and stuff like that.

In college wrestling we had to make weight every weekend, so it's not bad at all. I get it off easily.

I treat it just like a workday. When I'm training, I'm training. When I'm not, I'm not. And when I'm not in fight prep, we have fun weekends.

I'm really into circuit training. You don't have to do each station for very long. Implementing some free weights, maybe a treadmill if you're at a gym, you can put together your own little circuit. Go hard for five minutes, take a minute break. Maybe do a one minute hard run on the treadmill, right into some pull ups.

I felt like I deserved a title shot a few times in the UFC and was kind of passed over.

Machida always has his elusiveness and whatnot and Shogun has the tools to beat him.

There will always be something down there that says, 'All right, you won the Bellator title but you never won the UFC title.' I've thought about that. I've never had the opportunity, and yes, a lot of it is my fault... but I never got that opportunity.