Ryan Bader: By the Numbers

The new surroundings seem to suit Ryan Bader just fine.

“The Ultimate Fighter 8” winner and Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran will defend his Bellator MMA light heavyweight championship against Linton Vassell in the Bellator 186 main event on Friday at the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, Pennsylvania. It marks Bader’s first appearance since he made his promotional debut at Bellator 180 on June 24 and eked out a split decision over Phil Davis to capture the 205-pound title. The Power MMA Team cornerstone enters the cage on a three-fight winning streak that has seen him best Davis, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ilir Latifi in succession; only Davis went the distance. Long viewed as one of the sport’s premier light heavyweights, Bader sports 12 finishes among his 23 professional victories.

As Bader prepares to risk his championship against the crafty Vassell, here are some of the numbers that have come to define him:

.821: Career winning percentage. That includes Bader’s 15-5 mark in the UFC.

2: NCAA All-America selections at Arizona State University, where he was also a three-time Pac-10 Conference champion.

3: Wins by submission. Bader has one rear-naked choke, one arm-triangle choke and one guillotine choke to his credit.

4: Opponents defeated to win Season 8 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series. Bader submitted Kyle Kingsbury with an arm-triangle choke during qualifications, knocked out Tom Lawlor in the quarterfinals, took a unanimous decision from Eliot Marshall in the semis and put away Vinny Magalhaes with punches in the final.

6: Fighters who have held the Bellator MMA light heavyweight championship. Besides Bader, Christian M’Pumbu, Attila Vegh, Emanuel Newton, Liam McGeary and Phil Davis have all occupied the company’s throne at 205 pounds.

8: First-round finishes on his resume. Magalhaes, Vladimir Matyushenko, Jason Brilz, Buckley Acosta, Ulysses Cortez, Dicky Chavez, David Baggett and Dave Covello were the victims.

9: Countries in which Bader has fought as a professional mixed martial artist. They are the United States, Brazil, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan and Mexico. He has also fought in the Cayman Islands, a British territory in the Caribbean Sea.

34: Years of age. “Darth” Bader was born on June 7, 1983 in Reno, Nevada. “Return of the Jedi” was the No. 1 movie at the domestic box office at the time.

111: Combined victories between the five men -- Jon Jones, Tito Ortiz, Lyoto Machida, Glover Teixeira and Anthony Johnson -- who have beaten Bader.

1,018: Total strikes landed in Ultimate Fighting Championship competition, according to FightMetric. That number ranks fifth on the promotion’s all-time list for light heavyweights behind only Jones (1,368), Ortiz (1,241), Forrest Griffin (1,096) and Mauricio Rua (1,042).