Bellator Fighting Championships demonstrated once again last night, that you don’t necessarily have to be part of the Zuffa Empire to put on some ‘hell yeah’ fights. If you didn’t catch the action on MTV 2 then you missed one of the nastiest KO’s of the year, courtesy a Patricky Freire flying knee on Toby Imada, the highly regarded Eddie Alvarez defending his lightweight belt against Pat Curran, and a ‘close your eyes kids’ slugfest between Ben Saunders and Matt Lee. Yup, that’s “Killa B” Saunders, formerly of the UFC.
The much bigger Saunders pounded away at his opponent with knees and punches that would have left most of us poor slobs sobbing and broken early in round one, but Lee kept returning fire and coming back for more. When a bloodied Lee (and we’re talking Rated R bloody, not just a trickle) came out for round three, Saunders saluted his foe before resuming the beat down. After the ATT fighter opened yet another cut on Lee moments in, the cageside physician put an end to the violence. Speaking on his Twitter account after, Saunders had this to say about the resilient Lee:
Sorry guys I did my best to get the KO but Matt Lee has to be the toughest SOB I have ever fought! Props to him and his camp!
Yes, hats off to Mr. Lee for the inspiring and ballsy performance. It will be interesting to see what Bellator has in store for Saunders next, who has now won 2 straight since being cut by the UFC.