Realitywanted.net » Interview with Ben Saunders from SPIKE TV’S The Ultimate Fighter.

Interview with Ben Saunders from SPIKE TV’S The Ultimate Fighter.

Posted on December 4th, 2007 by Mark
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Q. Mark RealityWanted.com: What originally got you involved in MMA?

A. Ben Saunders, The Ultimate Fighter: I have been doing martial arts since I was 8 years old and I have always been a huge fan of Bruce Lee. I was training in MMA from the start and in 1993 when I was 10 years old I watched the first UFC PPV fights. When I watched it, it blew my mind it was the first competition I saw and at that point I realized what kind of sport I was in and at age 10 I knew it was what I wanted to do.

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Q. Mark: Why did you try out for THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER?

A. Ben Saunders, The Ultimate Fighter: One of my friends who was on season two of TUF had his manager bring up my name during auditions. That’s all he could do for me, then I had to sell myself and prove to them I am a fighter and a personality/character for the show.

Q. Mark RealityWanted.com: What was it like to be on Serra’s Team?

A. Ben Saunders, The Ultimate Fighter: He was awesome, I consider him a good friend these days. I have family in NJ and CT so it’s convenient to stop in NY and see Matt. He is world class and a class act, he is hilarious. We both have similar interests, laughter is the best enjoyment life can give and he is the same way I am. Matt Serra is living the dream.

Q. Mark RealityWanted.com: What are thought on Matt Hughes?

A. Ben Saunders The Ultimate Fighter: I have said in all my interviews that in my opinion Matt Hughes is a world class fighter but coaching is not his deal. He stays on his farm doing farm work and trains for his fights but Matt Serra is an instructor, he is used to coaching students. Matt Serra was a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter like we all are and knows how hard it is to live in that house. Serra knows how living in the house tries to steal your soul, he knew our pain. Hughes had no clue, he coached in the past but during filming of this season he lived in a hotel with a TV, saw his family, and was basically on vacation. When Serra saw us look beat down he would ask what we wanted to do and knew when to push and not to push us which is why our team was so dominant in the preliminaries. I think the house mentally destroys people then Matt Hughes beats his team down physically.

Q. Mark RealityWanted.com: Where you around when War machine, Troy, and Ritchie messed up the house? What did you think of that and who’s house is that?

A. Ben Saunders, The Ultimate Fighter: I was not there, I was training for my fight. When we came back I was laughing at the wall. I don’t understand how people comment in online forums saying they can’t believe anyone would do that to the house. The house was like a studio set not a house. They told us we could not do things like burn the house down or break windows. We had nothing to do, its boring.

Q. Mark RealityWanted.com: Who did you bond the most with in the house?

A. Ben Saunders, The Ultimate Fighter: I bonded with Troy, Matt Arryo, War Machine, Richie, George, basically all on the guys on Serra’s team, we are like a family. We stay in touch, I even bonded with people on Hughes team like Blake Bowman. As much as people dogged Blake he is great and hilarious, he helped us get through hard times. The only person I didn’t bond with was Mac, he is a bit anti social.

Q. Mark RealityWanted.com: Talk to me about the fight?

A. Ben Saunders, The Ultimate Fighter: The sickness played a huge factor, I didn’t even want to fight but felt my career would be on the line if I did not. It would have been one of those stupid things like not making weight and it could have been a career ender. I had a bad sinus infection and after the prior fight I went to the doctor and I found out my nose was also busted. The doctor placed me on big time antibiotics. About five days after the Barrera fight I had to cut weight and it shot my immune system. I had a huge fever and splitting headache. I actually called the producers asking to get an IV but they said I could not fight if I had one.

I won’t take the win away from Tommy and tell everyone I would have whooped his ass but technically 9 out of 10 times I would have won that fight. I had a submission on Tommy a minute into the first round. I could not just go tell Serra I was not going to fight. I never even really stopped him from taking me down during the fight since you can do Ju Jitsu with your eyes closed just feeling it out. I was gassed before I even walked into the fight.

Q. Mark RealityWanted.com: Got a myspace you want to share?

A. Ben Saunders, The Ultimate Fighter:

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