Athletes
Ryan Loder Is Always Evolving
Former Ultimate Fighter Winner Ryan Loder Is Eager To Show His Improvements And Secure His First UFC Win At UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Hooker
Ryan Loder knew he needed to make changes following his knockout loss to Azamat Bekoev.
The Ultimate Fighter Season 32 winner pushed himself through training camp, and when he showed up for his UFC debut in May 2025, he was on the other side of injuries and letdowns, which is another way of saying he wasn’t in the best space before a fight.
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He doesn’t bring that up as an excuse—he showed up to fight, after all—but Loder admits he “wasn’t ready” for the fight. The Northern Iowa alumnus was happy to make his first walk to the Octagon in Des Moines, but otherwise, he came away from the experience with myriad lessons in tow.
“The loss was tough, but we always learn from that,” Loder said. “It's OK. I have more fights on my contract, and I'm relatively new to the game. I mean, this is my 11th fight in four years, so it's a learning process.
“Each time I'm out here, it's a whole different fighter.”
One of the biggest takeaways was he needed to improve his striking, so he enlisted UFC veteran Viacheslav Borshchev as his striking coach. Together, they traveled to Thailand and, working out of Bangtao Muay Thai & MMA, they broke down Loder’s standup game each day.
Loder embraced the daily work and the change in scenery, and he is eager to show off his improvements when he faces Ismail Naurdiev at UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Hooker in Doha, Qatar.
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“[Thailand] was more just a place to get away from what I'm normally doing,” Loder said. “We really just worked together a lot. We sparred two days a week. We had a lot of different sparring partners that were different. It was good to put myself out there and then test what we've been working on. And then, I worked on drills with Slava and we kind of fine-tuned a lot of things, so hopefully now it will be a lot better on my feet.”
While Loder is 34, he is telling the truth when he says he is young in mixed martial arts. Since making his professional debut in October 2021, he’s tallied just nine official fights plus two victories on his journey to The Ultimate Fighter finale.
He looks at that reality in a matter-of-fact manner. To improve, he needs reps, which he got with Borshchev as well as the red-hot middleweight Anthony Hernandez.
When it comes to his opponent, he’s less concerned with what Naurdiev is going to bring to the Octagon and more focused on implementing his game. That game circulates around his wrestling background, but with the work done in camp, he also hopes it includes the improvements made on the feet.
He’ll find those skills pushed against Naurdiev, who has split his two fights in the Octagon, scoring a decision win over Bruno Silva at UFC 308 before falling on the scorecards to JunYong Park in June.
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For Loder, it’s all about moving forward, getting that next live rep, accumulating more time in the Octagon and getting that first official UFC win.
“I can't change anything that happened,” he said. “It's a learning experience. It's growing from that experience. Now I get to showcase like, OK, now it's a different fighter. And each time I come out, I'm a different fighter. I'm just getting better, which is scary for a lot of people being a little bit older for the game, but coming into it relatively new and just kind of jumping straight into it, [and] I have amazing people around me that helped me so much… I'm excited to show it.”
UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Hooker took place live from ABHA Arena in Doha, Qatar on November 22, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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