Former Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader won’t be making his RIZIN debut as scheduled on New Year’s Eve.
The 42-year-old veteran, who signed with the Japanese based promotion after asking for his release from PFL, revealed that he suffered a litany of injuries in training camp that’s going to require him to undergo surgery. Bader was originally slated to face Alexander Soldatkin on the annual RIZIN New Year’s Eve card but now he’ll have to rest and recover before potentially plotting his return
in 2026.
“Bad news guys sorry…I’m out of the Rizin NYE championship fight unfortunately,” Bader wrote on Instagram. “Sustained a pretty gnarly injury last week and was trying everything we could to get to the fight. MRI results came back and spoke to the doc and surgery is definitely needed. Headed to get surgery early next week to get on the better side of this.
“Was really looking forward to this one. Apologies to RIZIN and the Japanese fans, trust me I wanted to be there! Thank you to everyone involved in setting up this opportunity. In 44 fights it’s the first one I’ve had to pull out of after starting training camp. All good here though, going to one of the best surgeons for this and be on the healing side of this next week.”
Bader then listed off the multitude of injuries he suffered in training that’s going to require him to go under the knife.
A few of the injuries … right side, near-complete detachment of the pubic plate plus rectus abdominis plus adductor aponeurosis. Full-thickness tearing of the connected tissue. Fluid tracking = active, significant injury
“Left Side, partial detachment, partial tear of the pubic plate to rectus abdominis to adductor chain. Rectus Abdominis = Grade 2 strain. Adductor Longus = partial tear and tendinosis.”
The fight in RIZIN was scheduled as Bader’s first appearance since losing in his PFL debut to Renan Ferreira back in February 2024. After securing his release from PFL, Bader signed with RIZIN with plans to compete for the heavyweight title after he finished promotion on his first major acting role after playing a part in The Smashing Machine opposite Dwayne Johnson.
Sadly now Bader is headed for surgery with no timeline revealed yet when he might be able to compete again.
