“It’s a pretty tough situation,” Bader said in an interview with MMAmania. “You have an interim title, but you want something real, a fight for the current championship belt. Once you win the interim title, you have to wait for two legends to come back, Stipe and Jones, who have the opportunity to pick their fights. At this stage either of them could end their careers and I think they deserve to make this fight”
“What would I do if I were Tom? I think I would wait. If he comes out to fight, is he putting the interim title on the line? How is that even a thing? Has that ever happened before? I don’t know. If he loses, he loses the chance to fight Jones or Stipe. You believe in yourself and you believe you can beat these guys, and then you lose that chance. If I were him, I’d keep training and waiting for that opportunity. At the end of the day, you want to earn as much as you can, and there’s too many variables.”
As a reminder, Ryan Bader will return to the cage on February 24 at the PFL and Bellator co-main event in Riyadh, and his opponent will be PFL heavyweight champion Henan Ferreira.