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Whether fighters gnawing at each other is your cup of tea or not, fact is: Conflict can be a powerful marketing tool. And, in a sport where results are not the only thing standing between an athlete and their success, you can’t really fault fighter for resorting to it.

Still, amid all the drama, there’s something refreshing about two high-level athletes simple respecting and acknowledging each other’s skills.

We got that this weekend, courtesy of UFC champ-champ Daniel Cormier and Bellator’s 205-pound champion Ryan Bader.

After Bader and Fedor Emelianenko were confirmed as the finalists of Bellator’s heavyweight tournament, with their respective wins over Matt Mitrione and Chael Sonnen, Cormier took to Twitter to express why, despite his love for Emelianenko, he believed Bader would win.

“No doubt in my mind that Ryan Bader wins this tournament. I love Fedor, but he gets taken down by Bader and he doesn’t get up. And he can’t get tired and be so reckless. Gonna be fun to watch.”

On Saturday, Bader sat cageside at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y as Emelianenko dispatched Sonnen to confirm their fight for the vacant heavyweight crown on Jan. 26. Talking to reporters afterward, he reacted to Cormier’s shout-out.

“The respect from peers is definitely a cool thing to see, especially from a guy like him,” Bader said. “I respect him a ton and what he’s done in this sport. I still got to go out there and do it, though. I thrive in this kind of stuff and I can’t wait.”

And that wasn’t their first interaction this weekend.

The night before, at Bellator 207, Bader had beaten Mitrione to stamp his own ticket to the final bout of the grand prix. Given he now has the chance to do in Bellator what Cormier has done in the UFC, the subject of a possible meeting between the two, which came close to coming together in the octagon, was bound to come up.

Bader would certainly want it to happen, he said, but quickly shot down the likelihood of it. Cormier, on his end, shared some nice words about Bader “killing it” in Bellator.

It isn’t that surprising that Cormier (21-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) and Bader (26-5 MMA, 4-0 BMMA), both known to keep things civil (or mostly) outside the cage, would be able to carry a respectful interaction. But, then again, things weren’t always this amicable between the two.

Cut to 2015, right after UFC 187 had wrapped up.

Cormier had just won the UFC’s light heavyweight title, which had recently been stripped from Jon Jones, and sat at the press conference discussing his plans for the future. One of those plans, he’d go on to say, included “somebody else that needs his ass kicked, too” and he just so happened to be there.

That somebody was Bader. The 205-pound Bellator champ, who was then riding a four-fight streak in the UFC and had just had his own meeting with Cormier cancelled, didn’t just sit back. A back-and-forth ensued and, though things never got physical, it took UFC officials to appease thing (You can catch up on the entire history of that here).

It is said that time heals all wounds, though, and while we can’t say that’s true for everything, it seems to have been the case here.

“It is what it is,” Bader said, when asked about the bond they seem to have formed after a tumultuous past. “We’re competitors, we’re top guys who want the same things. I wanted a title fight, he had it at the same time. We were jawing at each other a little bit, but there’s tons of mutual respect there.

“Coming from the wrestling world, what he’s done and then what he’s done in the MMA world. I want to kind of do the same thing he just did. The double champ there. So, a lot of respect there.”

To hear from Bader, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of Bellator 207 and Bellator 208, check out the MMA Events section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly seriously, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.