UFC/TUF Alumni Ben “Killa B” Saunders takes on former MFC Welterweight Champion Douglas Lima at Bellator 57.

 

On Saturday, November 12, Canada is hosting another explosive night of MMA.  Inside the Casino Rama,  Bellator will be holding its fifth season finale of the welterweight tournament. It was absolutely no easy road to punch your ticket to the finale but welterweights Ben “Killa B” Saunders and Douglas “The Phenom” Lima have both done the work necessary to earn their shot at the $100,000.  Not only will the finalists earn that payday with a win but they will also earn their shot at getting the belt. No matter how you look at it, if there was ever a fight to win……this is it.

 

Ben “Killa B” Saunders defeated Luis Santos to earn his spot in the finale. Ben who is known for his vicious elbows and devastating knees gave us a showing with the rubber gaurd that will not be forgotten anytime soon. Santos appeared to be very frustrated as Saunders put on a BJJ rubber guard clinic and eventually had Santos tapping in the third round with an Americana. This was the submission that sealed his spot in the season 5 finale.

 

Saunders background in Jeet Kune Do has given him a solid advantage in the world of mixed martial arts. Ben currently holds the rank of brown belt in brazilian jiu jitsu and trains at ATT in Orlando. He is 28 years old, stands at 6’2″, and has a 77.5″ reach.

 

Some of you may have already heard of Ben Saunders as he is no stranger to fighting professionaly. Ben has had 7 fights with the UFC since his entrance via The Ultimate Fighter. At UFC 99  Ben fought Mike Swick and received his first UFC loss outside TUF. Following that tough loss “Killa B” fought Marcus Davis at UFC 106 and knocked him out courtesy of his knee at 3:24 into the first round. Ben was the first person to ever finish Marcus with a KO. After this win it was hard to deny that Ben was legit and he got his shot to fight top 10 talent. A few fights were shuffled around due to injuries and Ben drew a fighter by the name of John Fitch at UFC 111 in which he lost via unanimous decision. The UFC gave Ben another shot and paired him up with Dennis Hallman at UFC 117. Saunders lost this fight by unanimous decision as well and was cut by the UFC.

 

Around the first of February 2011 an announcement was made stating that Ben Saunders had signed with Bellator to fight in the welterweight tournament. His first fight for Bellator was against Matt Lee fighting at a catchweight of 175 lbs. This fight was stopped early due to doctors request.  His second fight at Bellator 49 was against Chris Cisneros. This fight had eery images of his last fight written all over it…..Saunders won by TKO, too many unanswered knees and punches. His final obstacle was Luis Santos at Bellator 53.  This is the fight where the rubber guard was introduced to alot of fans and Saunders’ ground skills punched his ticket to the finale with an Americana in the third.

 

Former MFC champion Douglas Lima just might be the name everyone will be learning soon. After an award worthy Knockout of opponent Chris Lozano at Bellator 53 I would recommend all of his opponents be on the lookout.  Lima holds an impressive record of 20-4-0. He fights out of Atlanta and trains with ATT Atlanta.  Douglas is 23 years old, stands at 6’1″ and has a 71″ reach. Lima has been climbing his way to the top for a few years now, attempting to sign on with former WEC, he was not able to get the deal inked because he could not get his papers from the US Bureau of citizenship and immigration services. This ended up being his kryptonite and prevented that deal from transpiring.

 

From there Lima went on to dominate the welterweight division at MFC.(Maximum Fighting Championship)  He not only took the title from Jesse Jaurez at MFC 27 but he also defended his title against Terry Martin at MFC 29 and retained his spot.

 

In May 2011 Lima was able to come to an agreement with Bellator and signed on with the promotion to enter the season 5 welterweight tournament.  His very first fight in the tournament was against Steve Carl. This fight was an all out war and took all three rounds to declare a winner by unanimous decision declaring Lima the winner.  The next fight of the tournament was the semi-finals where he faced a very intimidating Chris Lozano. Lozano had been touted as having very heavy hands and crazy knock out power. Lozano and Lima had an all out war going on inside the cage and it looked as if anyone could have been knocked out with any punch that was being thrown when Lima fired off a straight right that put Lozano face first on the mat. This thunderous knock out is what sealed the deal for Lima and advanced himself straight to the finale vs. Ben Saunders.

 

Tune into Bellator this weekend, November 12th and don’t miss out on one second of this non stop action packed night of MMA. B.G

Tags: att orlando, Bellator 57, bellator fighting championships, bellator season 5, bellator season finale, bellator welterweight tournament, Brazilian jiu jitsu, canada mma events, casino rama, chris lozano, dennis hallman, dom fight gear, douglas lima vs ben saunders, jbb rubber guard, jeet dune do, Jesse Jaurez, john fitch, killa b, luis santos, marcus davis, Maximum Fighting Championship, mfc, Mike Swick, mixed martial arts, MMA Events, mma news, november 12, Steve Carl, Terry Martin, the phenom, the ultimate fighter, tuf, ufc, welterweight champion

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Bellator. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.