Ryan Bader denies interest in Anthony Johnson fight: “He had his shot. Let me get my shot”

The whole thing with that, you know, some media ran with that. He just tweeted something about ‘I never said anything about Bader or whatever, but I will take the fight.’ You know for me, I’m looking at fights that make sense right now. He had his shot. Let me get my shot. Gustafsson just had his shot. Who’s in front of me? I have a five-fight winning streak right now – the longest one in the UFC in their Light heavyweight [division] by far. So for me, these guys all got to get there shot, and you’re going to keep on recycling them? So I think I deserve it enough to go out there and fight Cormier. Why would I just take the fights just to take a fight?

Title shots don’t grow on trees, you know? So if you’re offered one, you gotta take that for sure. I don’t want to sit there and be baited into a fight that doesn’t make sense, just to fight. My ultimate goal is to go out there and win that title. It all depends, there’s too many hypotheticals out there. You know, what if, what if? Who knows what happens? We’ll cross that road when Jon Jones’ situation is given out to the public [in regards to] what’s happening. But as of right now, my mindset is, I’m fighting Daniel Cormier until we hear what happens with Jones. So I don’t know. That’s my mindset right now.

-Ryan Bader talks to Submission Radio about why he’s not actually interested in a fight with Anthony Johnson as reported last week (via BloodyElbow.com).

Penick’s Analysis: It’s such a crappy spot for Bader to be in off five straight wins, but it’s just highly unlikely that he gets the next title fight in the division. Jon Jones is almost assuredly going to be reinstated, and he’s going to fight Daniel Cormier when he returns to the cage. Bader’s either going to have to sit out for nine months or more to fight the Jones-Cormier winner, or he’s going to need to fight someone else. Those are going to be his two options, as unfortunate as they are for him, and it’s something he’ll need to come to terms with pretty soon when Jones’ return is made official.