A definitive outcome was required.
More than two years after their first encounter ended in an
anticlimactic no contest,
Ryan Bader
will defend his
Bellator
MMA heavyweight championship against
Cheick Kongo
when their rematch headlines
Bellator 280 on Friday at Accor Arena in Paris. Bader has
rattled off nine wins across his past 12 assignments. “The Ultimate
Fighter” Season 8 winner last fought at Bellator 273, where he
unified the heavyweight crown with a unanimous decision over
interim champion
Valentin
Moldavsky on Jan. 29. Kongo, meanwhile, has some momentum in
his corner. He last competed on Aug. 20, when he submitted
Sergei
Kharitonov with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their
Bellator 265 main event.
As Bader and Kongo move ever closer to their second encounter with
one another, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied
them to this point:
38: Years of age for Bader, who was born on June 7, 1983 in Reno,
Nevada.
12: Bader victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting
for 41% of his career total (29). His list of Bellator victims:
Fedor
Emelianenko,
Muhammed
Lawal and
Linton
Vassell. Bader holds three other victories by submission and 14
more by decision.
15: Seconds needed for Bader to punch out Lawal at Bellator 199 on
May 12, 2018. Having occurred nearly four years ago, it remains his
fastest finish to date.
60: Rounds completed by Bader as a professional mixed martial
artist. He has gone the distance on 14 different occasions and
carries a perfect 14-0 record in those bouts.
.779: Cumulative winning percentage between the seven
opponents—
Corey
Anderson,
Vadim
Nemkov,
Anthony
Johnson,
Glover
Teixeira,
Lyoto
Machida,
Tito Ortiz and
Jon
Jones—who have beaten Bader. They boast a combined record of
159-44-1.
46: Years of age for Kongo, who was born in Paris on May 17,
1975.
15: Kongo wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for
48% of his career total (31). His list of Bellator victims:
Tim
Johnson,
Javy Ayala
and
Mark
Godbeer. Kongo owns four other wins by submission and 12 more
by decision.
2: Stalemates on the Kongo resume. He fought to a two-round draw
with
Michael
Knaap at an It’s Showtime event on Sept. 29, 2002 and settled
for a three-round draw with
Travis
Browne at UFC 120 on Oct. 16, 2010.
8: Countries in which Kongo has plied his mixed martial arts trade.
He has gone 19-6 with one no contest in the United States, 6-2-1 in
the Netherlands, 3-0-1 in England, 2-0 in Canada, 1-0 in Croatia,
0-1 in Germany, 0-1 in Japan and 0-1 in his native France.
236: Combined victories between the 11 opponents who have defeated
Kongo: Johnson, Lawal,
Vitaly
Minakov,
Roy Nelson,
Mark
Hunt,
Frank Mir,
Cain
Velasquez,
Heath
Herring,
Carmelo
Marrero,
Gilbert Yvel
and
Rodney
Glunder. They sport a cumulative .640 winning percentage
(236-128-5).