Ben Saunders
Bellator season six welterweight semi-finalist Ben ‘Killa B’ Saunders (13-5-2) will meet promotion newcomer ‘Unbreakable’ Brian Warren (17-15-1) later this month as part of the upcoming Bellator 72 event.
News of the bout was confirmed by MMAjunkie.com, who noted that the two fighters would meet in a 178-lbs catchweight bout.
Bellator Fighting Championships is on a bit of a hiatus this summer with only three events booked. The first event, Bellator 71 took place on June 22, with Bellator 72 going down on July 20, and Bellator 73 set for August 24.
Bellator 72 will take place on July 20, 2012 at the USF Sund Dome in Tampa, Florida with the main card airing on MTV2 and the prelim card streaming live on Spike.com.
Saunders suffered a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Bryan Baker this past May at Bellator 67 in the season six welterweight semi-finals. ‘Killa B’ made it into the second round after defeating Raul Amaya in March at Bellator 63 in the tournament quarterfinals. The win allowed Saunders to bounce back from a season five tournament final loss to Douglas Lima, who finished ‘Killa B’ by knockout in the second round.
Warren has won four straight and is 6-1 over his last seven bouts. The one time Strikeforce fighter, who lost to Cung Le back in June 2006, earned a submission victory in his last fight this past April stopping opponent Jeff Russell with a rear-naked choke in 48-seconds of their Gladiator Challenge event.
Speaking to MMAjunkie.com, Warren had this to say about the fight.
“Fighting has been like my fuel to keep going and drive me,” Warren said. “This fight against Ben will be one of the biggest tests of my life. I always fight at 170, so now with the extra few pounds at 178, I feel stronger because the weight cut won’t be as bad, and I don’t have any ring rust. A ton of doors will open if I can get this victory, and it would just be a huge win.”