UFC light heavyweight Ryan Bader had no intention of pursuing free agency in 2016, but when it came time to negotiate his next contract, the same two words kept coming up: Why not?Bader (21-5) is scheduled to face Antonio Rogerio Nogueira on Saturday in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The bout will headline UFC Fight Night -- and represents the final fight of his contract.According to Bader, the UFC offered him a new four-fight deal, but the terms just didnt excite him. The 33-year-old is approaching his 20th UFC appearance, and hes willing to at least explore what else is out there.The UFCs offer was par for the course -- nothing crazy or anything that made us say, Oh man, we need to take this! Bader told ESPN.com. It was one of those things where we were in a position to say, Why not fight out the contract? It doesnt mean Im leaving the UFC, but why not see what happens?There were times where I wasnt happy and we needed to renegotiate, like when I was on The Ultimate Fighter contract and they wanted me to fight Rampage [Quinton Jackson] in Japan. There was stuff like that. Sponsorship-wise, I took a hit with the Reebok deal. Im in a weird spot, though I cant bitch too much. But we all want more money for what we do.Baders contract situation adds a wrinkle to this weekend, which, to be frank, initially lacked a little significance.Although Nogueira (22-7) looked good in a first-round knockout over Patrick Cummins in May, a win over the Brazilian would do almost nothing for Baders stock in the 205-pound division. Theres also the fact hes already beat him once. The two met in 2010, with Bader taking a unanimous decision.If you look at it as far as a sequence of who Ive fought, this matchup might not make the most sense, Bader said. But when youre in training camp, every fight feels super important. To get where I want to go, I have to win. I do already have a win over him, and hes a little older now, but hes still a crafty, dangerous veteran.Fighting out of Arizona, Bader says he felt extremely relaxed during his last fight, a second-round knockout over Ilir Latifi in September. Between 2013 and 2015, Bader won five decisions in a row, which he says actually put an enormous amount of pressure on him to keep the streak going.He says he took very few risks because of that, and that showed a little in a quick knockout loss to Anthony Johnson in January. Now, Bader says hes taking chances and looking for knockouts, which would probably lead him to a title shot faster than a long streak of decisions anyway.Its one of those things, I won five fights in a row and didnt get a title shot, Bader said. Im not entirely focused on going out there and getting the win, per se. When I was on my winning streak, I was fighting a certain way because I was telling myself, If youre going to get a title shot, you absolutely cannot lose.Now, Im taking more risks. Im freed up more. Its a fun mindset to be in. Looking back on it now, especially with the way people are getting title shots these days, it probably would have been better for me to throw caution to the wind. I might have lost one or two fights because of it, or I might have won two or three in a row by knockout and got a title shot already. At that point, I really changed the way I look at things. Wholesale Ultra Boost . Now, with Game 6 set for Fenway Park and an 8:07 p.m. ET first pitch, the Detroit Tigers face the unenviable task of having to beat the Boston Red Sox twice, on the road, to advance to the World Series. Discount Adidas Ultra Boost . -- Ty Montgomery had 290 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, and fifth-ranked Stanford held on to beat No. http://www.wholesaleultraboost.com/ . -- Claudio Bieler hadnt scored since early September, and not from the run of play since mid-July. Buy Adidas Ultra Boost . Sulaiman, 44, was chosen unanimously Tuesday in a vote by the leadership, the World Boxing Council said. Sulaiman becomes the sixth president of the organization. Cheap Ultra Boost Mens . LOUIS -- Mike Smith is used to facing plenty of shots, so this was nothing new. MINNEAPOLIS -- After an 0-2 start in the Big Ten, the Minnesota Golden Gophers have fought their way back into the race for the West Division title. Heres where it starts to get interesting.Rodney Smith ran for 153 yards and three touchdowns and quarterback Mitch Leidner ran for 74 yards and two more scores Saturday as Minnesota defeated Purdue 44-31.The Gophers (7-2, 4-2 Big Ten) opened conference play with an overtime loss at Penn State and a home loss to Iowa. But theyve rattled off four straight wins over admittedly lesser foes -- Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois and Purdue, who have combined for five conference victories this season.Now the schedule gets tougher, with road games at Nebraska and Wisconsin sandwiched around a visit from Northwestern. Minnesota can win the Big Ten West if it wins out, which seemed and unlikely position for them to be in four weeks ago.After our first two conference games nobody gave us a chance ... to be in here, Gophers coach Tracy Claeys said. They kind of said the season was over. We just kept battling one game at a time and we fought our way back into this thing.Smith and Leidner put the points on the board on Saturday, but the Gophers resurgence in the past month and against Purdue was due in large part to its defensive effort. Trailing 28-23 at halftime, Minnesota forced three second-half turnovers, and the offense turned each of them into touchdowns as the Gophers outscored the Boilermakers 21-3 in the second half.We cant keep beating ourselves like that. Its frustrating, said Purdue quarterback David Blough, who threw four touchdown passes in the first half but was held in check after the break. They gave us every single coverage in America in the second half, they kept throwing wrenches in (our offense).Purdue (3-6, 1-5) again was competitive but continued to be plagued by second-half woes in its third game since head coach Darrell Hazell was fired. The Boilermakers have been outscored 83-10 in the second half in their last three games.It puts tears in my eyes not to be able to get them to a point they can finish, Purdue interim coach Gerad Parker said. Thought it was a chance for us, got into the third quarter and had a chance to win the game. We got to do that and relay to them its not okay to finish short and just be close.As Purdue tries to regroup, Minnesota gets ready for the most important stretch of its season, beginning with a game Saturday night at Nebraska. That leaves little time to celebrate its recent success.It feels good, but we have bigger goals, Smith said. This week is a big weeek coming up for us and we know that.ddddddddddddSTREAKINGPurdue receivers racked up more than 100 yards after the catch in the first half thanks to two long touchdowns off short passes. In the first quarter, Cameron Posey caught a ball one step ahead of Minnesota safety Damarius Travis and ran the last 60 yards untouched for an 89-yard touchdown. De Yancey later shook off a tackle and ran the last 45 yards of a 60-yard touchdown playYou never know until you get into the games how youre going to match up, Claeys said. Speeds hard to tell on video -- it really is. So after those two big plays we went to more safety help on them.OFF TARGETMinnesota linebacker Nick Rallis was ejected after being called for targeting in the fourth quarter. Hell miss the first half of the Nebraska game as a result. Replays appeared to show that Rallis made a clean hit with his shoulder but the replay official confirmed the ejection.That was the sixth targeting call against the Gophers, and though Claeys admitted to frustration over the inconsistent way the rule has been interpreted and implemented, he knew better than to say anything about it after the game.I would add more but Christmas is coming up and I would much rather use my money on Christmas presents than send it to the Big Ten, he said.THE TAKEAWAYPurdue: Blough ended the day with 391 passing yards, the fifth time hes passed for 300 yards this year. . Yancey and Posey each topped 100 receiving yards with a touchdown for PurdueMinnesota: Smith topped the 100-yard mark for the fourth straight game and sixth time this season. . Gophers running back Shannon Brooks missed the game due to an unspecified injury. . Minnesota rushed for five touchdowns for the second straight game. . Sophomore Emmit Carpenter became the first Gopher in 19 years to kick two 50-yard field goals in a game. Carpenter converted from 52 and 53 yards in the first half. . Sophomore linebacker Blake Cashman, a walk-on filling in for two injured teammates, finished the game with two sacks.LAST WORDI know to you guys it seems like a theme: Purdue cant finish in the second half. But we were just as ready in the second half as we were in the first half. It was not anything about lack of effort. They just made more plays in the second half. -- Boilermakers linebacker Markus BaileyUP NEXTPurdue hosts Northwestern on Saturday afternoon.Minnesota travels to Nebraska for a Saturday night clash with the Cornhuskers. ' ' '