{"id":218059,"date":"2017-01-17T10:01:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T18:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=218059"},"modified":"2017-01-17T11:54:39","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T19:54:39","slug":"ben-saunders-debt-court-mcgee-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-saunders\/ben-saunders-debt-court-mcgee-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Saunders was broke before Court McGee win"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday night, the UFC returned to Phoenix, Arizona with an exciting night of fights<\/a>. The second fight on the main card occurred at welterweight, where gritty veteran Ben Saunders took on The Ultimate Fighter 11<\/em> winner Court McGee.<\/p>\n

After three rounds of action, the judges would give this fight to Saunders<\/a>, though many fans seemed to think the decision should have been the other way around. From the sounds of, Saunders is very lucky the judges saw the fight the way they did, as he entered the fight in dire financial straights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He broke down his situation post-fight, explaining that his 17 second defeat of Jacob Volkmann on the regional circuit wasn’t enough to keep him afloat during his year away from the Octagon.<\/p>\n

His words (via MMAJunkie.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like talking about my personal life and my personal business, but realistically, it\u2019s been a year since I\u2019ve fought,\u201d Saunders explained. \u201cThis is what I do for a living, and that\u2019s a long, long time to [not] make some money. Yeah, I fought Volkmann, and yeah, I won in 17 seconds. But that wasn\u2019t a lot of money by any means. In fact, it was just possibly paying the bills off from the six to eight months that I didn\u2019t have a job, and then I went into this fight in debt.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Needless to say the welterweight veteran is pleased to have eked out the victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did everything I could to make a camp and be prepared and be in as best shape as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cWith this money and this win bonus, that\u2019s only going to allow me to get bigger and better training camp possibilities and have more focus on that and less stress. Unless you\u2019re a fighter, you don\u2019t understand the stresses (we) go through.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How did you score Phoenix’s Ben Saunders vs. Court McGee bout? Sound off, PENN Nation!<\/p>\n

This story first appeared on <\/i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a> on 1\/17\/2017<\/i><\/p>\n