Ryan Bader is a man who doesn't know where his future will take place.

A few weeks ago, the light heavyweight fought out his UFC contract and ended it in style with a TKO victory of Antônio Rogério Nogueira at UFC Fight Night 100.

Having now had a little while to think about things, the American gave an update on his situation this past weekend.

"I'm still a free agent right now," Bader told Submission Radio. "Over the next week or so we will see what's good and what not and see if we are going to be taking any offers from elsewhere and then getting in front of the UFC and all that stuff.

"We haven't gone there yet, we are still in the preliminary stages of it all so we just have to wait right now. We were going to see what happened in that light heavyweight title fight [Cormier vs Johnson], but obviously, that got pushed back so we brought it forward a little bit earlier than expected."

Bader then revealed that the UFC had offered him another contract before his last fight, but he chose not to sign it.

"They usually come to you with one fight left so they offered us something, but we didn't even count it and said that we were going to fight it out," Bader said. "It was pretty much the same contract that I had before just with a little bit more so we just thought we would fight it out.

"It was our decision and we are in process right now of just finding out what it is we want to do."

Asked whether he had received offers from other promotions, Bader answered vaguely but implied he had.

"Without getting into specifics there has been interest for sure," Bader said. "I don't want to talk too much about it and I don't want to say anything until it's all final and what not. There's interest out there, but we are in the preliminary stages right now.



"We are talking to UFC and it's one of those things--do you just get an offer from the UFC or do you go out there and test free agency. That's the space we are in right now."

Bader then spoke about when free agency first came across his mind and said that it had always been an option, but that the moves made earlier in the year by some of his former UFC colleagues further encourages him to test the market.

"It's always there in your mind--especially when you see Ben Henderson, Rory MacDonald going to different organizations and testing out free agency," Bader said. "Even with people coming back like Gilbert Melendez. It's always been an option, it's just when you are under contract for like another three or four fights it feels like a long time.

"It snuck up on me because I had that fight with Latifi and then I got offered that short notice fight with 'Little Nog'. Two fights in two months meant it was a very fast turn around so obviously, we were thinking about it going into the Latifi fight, but afterwards we knew what we were going to get offered was a standard offer so we knew what were going to get.

"It was never like, we were going to do this so we can leave the UFC, it was more so that I believed in myself a little bit and wanted to see what was out there or get a better contract going on."

Since defeating Nogueira via third round TKO, Bader and his team have yet to had further communication with the UFC. He did however suggest the talks would be taking place in the next few days.

"I believe yesterday he [his manager] asked for something," Bader said. "You know, we will see. That's I said we were in the preliminary stages of the full process. We should hear back in the next couple of days--we will see. I don't know really where I'm going to go from here, if I'm leaving or staying. I just got to see where my heart is and it's not all about money--there is different stuff too.

"I've been with the UFC since 2008 and even before that on TUF. It's just one of those things that's really early right now. We will see what happens."