Ben Saunders—The Serial Smiler is Back

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By Chuck Mindenhall

For some people, love at first sight is a phenomena best thought of in the context of romance. For Ben Saunders, who’s never in 26 years had a lot to do with convention, it was when sumo wrestler Teila Tuli took on Dutch savate practitioner Gerard Gordeau at UFC 1. That was the night the 400-pound Tuli’s tooth came flying out of his mouth and into press row, and that the first blood flowed—very red and very real—onto the canvas.

That fight was on November 12, 1993—nearly 16 years ago to the day that “Killa B” will take on Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis at UFC 106 in Las Vegas on November 21, 2009. Hey, career paths are made to be followed.

“I was ten years old when my best friend’s dad ordered the first UFC for us,” the Florida native recalls. “We saw it in Black Belt magazine, a big ad in it that read no holds barred, bare-fisted, everything, and I swear to God, when Gordeau kicked him in the face, then punched him in the face—man, when he did that, I thought Tuli was going to die. It sort of traumatized me . . . but it’s the same thing as seeing Friday the 13th when you’re too young. It’s like a traumatizing experience, then you love it. You can’t wait to see the next one.”

The sport has, of course, evolved in civil directions since that first show. For one thing, there are rules. For another, weight classes. “Killa B”—so-called in homage of Wu Tang Clan as well as a completely non-sequitur barroom incident—has followed it the whole way. But in those early hours of mixed martial arts, Saunders, at first gorily affixed to his television, ended up inspired by the even nuttier events that unfolded later on. The little man in the Gi, Royce Gracie, improbably won the tournament via a slick showcase of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

In the end, discipline trumped all the circus tricks and superseded all oddities. And that’s what stayed with Saunders as he began learning the arts of kickboxing, karate and grappling.

“When I saw Royce Gracie win that entire tournament I was like, that’s what I want to do. I thought, that’s unbelievable.”

Saunders got involved with mixed martial arts competition when he was eight years old. At first (and even still) he admired guys like Gracie, Tank Abbott, Keith Hackney and Kimo, a wide spectrum of brawlers and technicians—fitting because, here he is both. But there were other influences, too, spanning things with carapaces to those with high-minded concepts in Jeet Kune Do.

“My older brother was taking karate, and he would say ‘hey, stand right there,’ and he’d do a spinning back kick to my stomach and knock the wind out of me,” he says. “That’s one thing that I will never forget. Just him trying moves on me. That’s why I got into it. Otherwise, I watched a lot of Ninja Turtles, and Bruce Lee in general. Obviously, when I got older and I started reading Jeet Kune Do—just Lee’s philosophies on martial arts in general—it just transformed me. That was my initiation into the mixed martial arts.”

What followed?

Before Saunders would go onto The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra and make a name for himself or beat Brandon Wolff with a strong clinch and an onslaught of knees, he would take out his younger brother aggressions on a Body Opponent Bag, otherwise known as a “B.O.B.”—a bust-like punching bag built to absorb whatever punishment can be dealt out.

“You remember that? The Chuck Norris B.O.B.? I would beat the crap out of that thing,” he says, the way some NBA players talk about beginning their careers on a NERF hoop.

Just a few little glimpses into one of today’s rising stars in the UFC’s welterweight division, the man who smiles as he stalks with a sort of delirium that’s almost upsetting. Not many guys love fighting as much as Saunders does, and he commonly refers to the UFC as being the “Super Bowl” of MMA.

“There’s nothing like it,” he says. “If you’ve never done it, you’ll never know what I’m talking about, but for those select few that actually have, you know.”

After beating Dan Barrera in his UFC debut and following that up with wins against Ryan Thomas at UFC 87 and the devastating TKO of Wolff at UFC: Fight For the Troops, Saunders (7-1-2) is coming off his first loss in the UFC, dropped at the hands of Mike “Quick” Swick at UFC 99 in Germany via a TKO in the second round. There were verbal exchanges in the fight, and some things said by Swick after that rubbed Saunders the wrong way. But that’s not what bothers him most—the more peeving aspect of that fight for Saunders was that it ended up on the ground too often, when he thought they’d be throwing from the feet.

So, what happened?

“I don’t even know, man” he says. “It was a weird situation; I honestly feel like I gave Swick that win slightly. I knew I shouldn’t have thrown that leg kick that I was going for. The crowd was already in a bad mood from the fight before and I was just trying to keep some kind of action going. My mentality is win, lose or draw, I want to try and make it exciting. And I got caught trying to do that. I’ve got no regrets for it, it just kind of played out that way, and I kind of feel like I gave it to him.”

He will get a shot to rectify things against Marcus Davis (21-6), who is also coming off a hotly contested and much publicized loss to Dan Hardy. With Davis always interested in standing and banging, and Saunders’ ability to dish out punishment from distance and the clinch alike, this fight has the ingredients of war. The question of an entertaining fight seems, dare it be said, inevitable.

This time, though, no ugly words are coming out of either camp. Saunders has tremendous respect for the former boxer, Davis, whom he has had the pleasure of seeing around at various cards and events.

“I’ve met Marcus a few times and, dude, he’s the coolest guy in the world,” he says. “He’s just like me in that we’re two professional athletes who’ve been doing martial arts damn near our entire lives, and he’s a respectable guy. He’s never been stopped as far as submitted or knocked out. That’s my goal—my goal is to be the first to accomplish one of those.”

He hesitates a moment.

“He’s very nice, and it’s unfortunate that when I stand across from the cage and I see him and I know I’m going to have to go after him, you know.”

That does seem unfortunate. But here again, Saunders has a method of getting over any niceties that may be crowding over him.

“I’ll just be picturing Swick.”