Ryan Bader picked up the biggest win of his MMA career at UFC 144 when he beat Quinton Jackson, and he'll be looking to build on that this weekend when he faces Lyoto Machida at UFC on Fox 4 in LA. Bader was a recent guest on Inside the Cage Radio, and discussed how he's going to handle Machida. One of the things he's doing to prepare is sparring with Karate world champion Hiroshi Allen, who also worked with Randy Couture before his own bout with Machida:

"He’s been great," Bader said. "He comes in and we drill, we spar, he has the Machida stance, blitzes, the different kicks that he does, the trips. So I see it and I’m not surprised. We’ve been drilling quite a bit with him. He’s actually been really really good to have in addition to camp. … I feel like if I hadn’t done that I’d be surprised in the Octagon, but I’ve been through it."

"He’s done everything that Machida does and he brings that into the Octagon when we spar, so I’ve seen it hundreds of times. It’s not going to be the first time when I step in the Octagon that I’ve seen different stuff from Machida, so I feel good and I feel good about this fight and I’m ready."

Bader mentioned that he's also been working with Rick Roufus, but doesn't want to forget about his bread and butter - wrestling:

"We do practice wrestling quite a bit and implement that in the cage. When these guys are here I can usually take them down pretty easily, as far as new training partners, but I like to stand with them and kind of just get that whole dynamic and all that kind of stuff. I definitely mix those in. But I do have to remind myself a lot of times, yes you do have this to fall back on."

"But I want to be, just in case I can’t take you down or just in case something goes wrong, I’m going to be just as good on my feet and ready for anything he throws at us. But at the end of the day, when you’re in the fight, that’s going to come out too, those takedowns. I’ve been doing it for so long sometimes I don’t even think about doing it, my body just reacts. So if it’s there I’m definitely going to take it. But we’re going to be ready as far as in the stand-up department too and we feel really good about it."

It should be an interesting style clash when they meet in the co-main event in Los Angeles.

SBN coverage of UFC on Fox 4: Shogun vs. Vera

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