Bellator 57's Ben Saunders Glad He's Ready to Fight Douglas Lima

When you get the opportunity for a chance to win $100,000 and a shot to fight for a world championship, your team affiliation can be thrown out the window. Ben Saunders feels that way when it comes to fighting Douglas Lima.

Saunders (12-3-2 MMA, 3-0 BFC) and Lima (20-4 MMA, 2-0 BFC) train at the Florida and Georgia gyms of American Top Team respectively will square off tonight in the main event at Bellator 57, which takes place at Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario, Canada. It will be broadcast on MTV2 at a special start time of 7 p.m. ET/PT with the winner getting a crack at Bellator Welterweight Champion Ben Askren.

Askren defeated Hieron two weeks ago in a very close decision. Saunders feels the fight was really close and could have went either way depending on you judge the fight.

"I actually thought it was exciting," Saunders told me. "It really could have gone either way. I think at the end of the day, it comes down to the first round. Who would you give it too? Hieron was able to keep it on his feet. Then Askren would shoot, Hieron would sprawl, then Askren would come back back up with a hook a few times that actually connected. I don't know what the judges were looking at. I never looked at the fight from the judges' aspect. I haven't looked at the fight and being like who really won. Just as a casual fan and watching, it looked like it was real close and could have gone either way."

Saunders got released from the UFC last year and Bellator snatched him up and signed him to a deal earlier this year. Saunders has not disappointed, as he has went 3-0 this year and is one step away to fighting for a world championship. Saunders is proud of what he has done so far, but knows winning the tournament makes the year a whole lot sweeter.  He said:

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"I guess that really depends on how Saturday goes. I have been having a good year. I made it my New Years' Resolution man. I said yo, I'm over this man. I have trained too hard, too long and been through the gutter and made it to such a high level and then basically spit out to the gutter again and then had to work my way back up. I basically made a resolution to myself. I'm over this man. I can't be going backwards. I just need to be going forward. This is going to be my breakout year. I was going to make it happen. I was going to get a bunch of dominating wins, win a tournament and move on to win a title. That's been my plan and so far, so good. I definitely have been on track, focused and determined on what I need to do to accomplish all of that. We'll see how Saturday goes."

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His opponent on Saturday, Douglas Lima is only 23 years old and with 20 victories already. Saunders is very aware of that and impressed with Lima's victories in the Bellator tournament and sees very similar styles.  Saunders said:

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"He's good man, he's good. He definitely looks like he has power in his strikes. He's obviously phenomenal at ji-jitsu. That's like what he's known for, his biggest strong points. I think it's funny because this is a great matchup and I feel like we are fighting our shadows and may the best man win. You look at me, I've been known for my standup. I've been able to show my ji-jitsu in the tournament fights and he's known for his ji-jitsu. He''s been able to show his standup, so we are both well rounded coming out of American Top Team. American Top Team has the best in the world. We create champions. May the best man win on Saturday. There's just no doubt in my mind that I'm looking to win. Hoping my age and experience will go in my favor. He's young, he's 23."

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You can listen to the entire Ben Saunders by clicking here.

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