Ben Saunders clarifies his UFC departure, says he wasn’t “cut” but simply missed window to re-sign

By Jared Dodds, MMATorch contributor

Ben Saunders (photo by Bob DeChiara © USA Today)

Some eyebrows were raised at reports that Ben “Killa B” Saunders being cut from the UFC Welterweight roster with a 3-1 record. However, Saunders’ own words on the UG forum last night shed some more light on this bizarre sequence of events.

Saunders wrote that due to a number of personal reasons he did not immediately sign a new deal with the UFC, and that by the time he felt prepared to sign, UFC had already moved on and filled his slot on the roster.

“Fixing all of these aspects of my personal life and my career was not an easy task, but once I finally felt confidant and had my mind right again, it was unfortunately too late,” he wrote. “They don’t know anything about any of this going on in my life, and I would imagine they just took my silence as my form of resignation.”

Saunders goes on to talk about management issues and the death of his grandparents hanging over him going into the Patrick Cote fight, his only loss in his last four fights, causing him to not perform at his best. He has already secured a non-UFC booking, but it seems a return to UFC shouldn’t be ruled out, especially if he has continued success outside of UFC in the mean time.

Analysis: This is really disappointing for Killa B. It seemed as if he was really starting to hit his stride with the UFC, when one unfortunate circumstance after another combined with his lackluster fight with Patrick Cote cause the UFC to have to move on.

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