Light heavyweight Ryan Bader doesn’t typically attend UFC news conferences – unless, of course, he’s required to after fighting.

But this past Saturday, he took at seat at a meeting room in Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, where UFC 187 had just taken place. He wanted to see if UFC President Dana White would reveal the promotion’s plans for the next contender in his division, even though the executive almost never tips his hand to reporters.

Of course, Bader hoped he would be part of White’s plans.

Bader’s (19-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) rival, Daniel Cormier (16-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC), had just seized the light heavyweight title, which was left vacant when the UFC stripped Jon Jones of the belt after his alleged involvement in a hit-and-run accident in Albuquerque, N.M. In an upset performance, Cormier submitted Anthony Johnson (19-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) in UFC 187’s headliner.

Five months earlier, Cormier had lost a decision to his bitter rival in Jones and had fought back tears in the UFC’s octagon. He showed up halfway through the press conference on Saturday to address the media and parade his new belt.

Cormier was answering a question from MMAjunkie about his plans for the future when Bader said their eyes met. And then, Cormier addressed him directly, taking a left turn from a gathering that was supposed to celebrate his accomplishment.

“There’s somebody else that needs his ass kicked, too,” Cormier said. “I think he’s around here.”

The two started jawing at each other, Cormier’s voice amplified by a microphone and Bader doing his best to compete unplugged. It was not your average press conference moment. But Bader said it was completely unscripted.

“What was I supposed to do, just sit there and let him go after it because he just won the championship belt?” Bader told MMAjunkie Radio. “Hell no.”

Bader didn’t intend to walk up to the stage to confront the new champ. But suddenly, he found himself walking forward. Cormier, he said, had rubbed him the wrong way several months ago when they were scheduled to fight at next month’s UFC Fight Night 68 in New Orleans. Then Cormier got the title shot he wanted at UFC 187. And then he dropped his name.

“Something kind of took over, and I just walked up there, because I didn’t know what else to do,” Bader said. “(I thought), I’m going to go up there and slap him. I’m sick of this whole disrespect that he’s been showing me from the moment were supposed to fight.”

A UFC security rep intercepted Bader before he could reach the podium. Cormier was held back by the promotion’s senior director of PR, who was no stranger to getting between the former Olympian and a fight. Even UFC matchmaker Joe Silva got involved, sidling up beside Bader to calm him down.

They asked him to step to the side and not to further escalate things. Bader volunteered to leave.

“He has no respect for people,” Bader said of the new champ. “There’s a common denominator here, and it’s him. All these fights (with other fighters), it’s him.”

* * * *

In the spring of 2014, it was briefly reported that Bader and Cormier were going to fight at UFC 173. At that time, both men looked to boost their stock in the light heavyweight division. Cormier had fought his first bout at 205 pounds after a decorated run at heavyweight, and Bader had just gotten back in the win column after a loss to future title contender Glover Teixeira.

Cormier, though, wound up fighting Dan Henderson at the pay-per-view, and Bader went on to meet Rafael Cavalcante. Both won their respective fights, but Cormier’s stock undeniably took a bigger leap. Then Cormier went on the offensive against Jones, stoking a now-infamous rivalry that began four years earlier when the two met at an event peripheral to UFC 121 in California.

Bader said he signed a bout agreement to fight Cormier at UFC 173 and questions whether Cormier chose instead to face Henderson. Cormier denied doing so in the middle of their screaming match.

“(The UFC) said, ‘Daniel, what do you want?’ I want the easiest fight in the division, Ryan Bader,”

he said.

There’s no disputing, though, that they were scheduled to fight at UFC Fight Night 68 in New Orleans. With the fight announced in February, Bader had one month to train and prepare, though he said he had already put in work for Cormier for their ill-fated meeting at UFC 173.

The two flew to New Orleans for two days of interviews with local media. There, Bader said, Cormier began to grate on him.

“We weren’t in the same car, but we’d do the same interviews over and over,” he said. “And right from the first interview, (Cormier) was on me. And I don’t do that. I’ve never done that in my career, so it was just building and building. I left (one) day and I was exhausted just from being around that guy.”

But, as Bader pointed out, he hadn’t reached the point where he wanted to start a fight.

“You can take him in doses, because you can leave and get away from him,” he said.

After Cormier, who lost to Jones in January, got a second title shot and started accusing him of jumping the line of contenders, he started speaking up. He sent out several tweets and gave an interview to MMAjunkie, claiming Cormier was the one who hadn’t earned the opportunity.

Bader’s tweets didn’t go unnoticed by Cormier, who bashed the winner of “The Ultimate Fighter 8” in several interviews. Before they were separated, the new champ seemed unusually bent out of shape by the messages.

“This guy’s so disrespectful, I’m trying to fight Anthony Johnson, and Ryan Bader is sending me stupid messages on Twitter, because he wants people to think he deserves a title shot,” Cormier said.

The behavior on display at the press conference doesn’t just extend to public appearances, Bader said.

“Whether he’s insecure about that whole thing, and has to call everybody else out, who knows,” Bader told MMAjunkie Radio. “We have mutual friends, and those mutual friends tell me how he’s changed even before this and won’t give them the time of day,” he said. “I just hate being that with people. I don’t respect people like that.”

* * * *

Cormier is now the champion of a division coping with a void left by the sport’s most dominant champion. Bader and Cormier agree it’s not their fault that Jones erred so greatly outside the cage, but they differ on what the belt means.

Cormier sees himself as the undisputed champ, while Bader calls his belt “a consolation prize.”

“Even if I were to go win the belt, or anyone were to win the belt, I would feel like there’s still somebody out there,” Bader said. “(Jones) wasn’t beat; he didn’t give up the belt – he was stripped of the belt. That being said, there’s nothing we can do in this division.

“Yeah, he went out there and earned it, and he’s the champ today. But there’s still somebody out there, I feel, who holds that belt. Until you beat him, for myself, I’d never truly be the champ.”

Legitimate or not, Bader still wants to win the title. More importantly, though, he wants his next fight to be against Cormier.

“We just need to make this happen for a third time – for a title or no title, I don’t care,” he said. “I’ve never felt this way for an opponent. I just want to go in there and beat him up and have fun doing it.

“I’m going to go in there and put everything on the line and I’m going to try to knock Cormier out and make a statement. I will do that if I get a chance to fight him.”

In going after Cormier, Bader may have presented his strongest argument for that cause. Before, the veteran argued that his resume meant he was more deserving of a title shot at UFC 187. But the UFC chose Cormier, whose rivalry with Jones arguably elevated his stature to a point where his previous accomplishments mattered a little less. There was still heat on him.

There’s now new heat, and that matters a lot in the promotional scheme of things.

As Bader left the media room at the MGM Grand, he said he caught the attention of Cormier’s family and friends. They started chanting the new champ’s name. One of them teased him: “Bader, you look like you need to work out.”

On a night where he had already come close to punches without an arranged purse, Bader turned around to look at his antagonist. He decided it wasn’t the fight he needed.

“It’s a 400-pound dude,” Bader said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I need to work out, buddy.’”

For complete coverage of UFC 187, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show, available on SiriusXM channel 92, is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.