{"id":374567,"date":"2021-01-28T15:56:23","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T23:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=374567"},"modified":"2021-01-28T15:56:23","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T23:56:23","slug":"ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ben Saunders was close to walking away from MMA in 2012 and 2013.<\/p>\n<p>After Saunders&#8217; first stint in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ufc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UFC<\/a>, he signed with Bellator. The hope for Saunders was to win a Bellator tournament and become the face of the promotion or eventually get back to the UFC. However, throughout his time in the promotion, he realized Bellator and Bjorn Rebney had him in a horrible contract that nearly made him walk away from the sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;I\u2019m aware of what happened between me and Bellator and Bjorn Rebney. There was a lot of confusion with my contract and Bellator had me in this weird contract as it was so vague with no amount of fights or end date,&#8221; Ben Saunders said to BJPENN.com. &#8220;That is the first time I really thought I was done. I flew out to talk to Bjorn about my contract and how unhappy I was. I told him if they didn\u2019t let me go, I would do kickboxing and jiu-jitsu. I\u2019m not a slave. I didn\u2019t feel like I was being prima donna, I just wanted to know about my contract. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;The tournaments also extended your contracts, which I didn\u2019t know about. There were a lot of weird situations,&#8221; Saunders continued. &#8220;It was nothing against Bellator, my issue was with I gave my life to fight for the UFC and they tried to keep me in a contract so I could never go back. I was able to fight myself out of the deal and they tried to force me to re-sign. I was able to go back to the UFC and make history. That was a dark time of my career. The world doesn\u2019t know the amount of craziness I had to go through to get back to the UFC.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Eventually, Ben Saunders got out of his contract and signed with the UFC. Although he recently ended up parting ways with the leading MMA promotion again, <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-hopes-to-sign-with-a-promotion-soon-and-be-active-to-earn-way-back-into-the-ufc\/\">&#8220;Killa B&#8221; hopes to win a few fights<\/a> and get back to the Las Vegas-based promotion.<\/p>\n<p>What do you make of this story from Ben Saunders?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ben Saunders was close to walking away from MMA in 2012 and 2013. After Saunders&#8217; first stint in the UFC, he signed with Bellator. The hope for Saunders was to win a Bellator tournament and become the face of the promotion or eventually get back to the UFC. However, throughout his time in the promotion, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54463,"featured_media":374570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[44,10449,2674,39610],"tags":[39616],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ben Saunders was close to walking away from MMA in 2012 and 2013 as he said Bellator was holding him into a bad contract for years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ben Saunders was close to walking away from MMA in 2012 and 2013 as he said Bellator was holding him into a bad contract for years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-28T23:56:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ben-Saunders.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cole Shelton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cole Shelton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cole Shelton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/700e11a4d77666aed250058808e16134\"},\"headline\":\"Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-28T23:56:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-28T23:56:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/\"},\"wordCount\":363,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"UFC Exclusive\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Bellator\",\"Ben Saunders\",\"Exclusive MMA Interviews\",\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2021\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/\",\"name\":\"Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-28T23:56:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-28T23:56:23+00:00\",\"description\":\"Ben Saunders was close to walking away from MMA in 2012 and 2013 as he said Bellator was holding him into a bad contract for years.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Exclusive MMA Interviews\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/700e11a4d77666aed250058808e16134\",\"name\":\"Cole Shelton\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/cole-shelton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire | BJPenn.com","description":"Ben Saunders was close to walking away from MMA in 2012 and 2013 as he said Bellator was holding him into a bad contract for years.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire | BJPenn.com","og_description":"Ben Saunders was close to walking away from MMA in 2012 and 2013 as he said Bellator was holding him into a bad contract for years.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2021-01-28T23:56:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":399,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ben-Saunders.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cole Shelton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cole Shelton","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/"},"author":{"name":"Cole Shelton","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/700e11a4d77666aed250058808e16134"},"headline":"Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire","datePublished":"2021-01-28T23:56:23+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-28T23:56:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/"},"wordCount":363,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"keywords":["UFC Exclusive"],"articleSection":["Bellator","Ben Saunders","Exclusive MMA Interviews","UFC"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2021","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/","name":"Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-01-28T23:56:23+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-28T23:56:23+00:00","description":"Ben Saunders was close to walking away from MMA in 2012 and 2013 as he said Bellator was holding him into a bad contract for years.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/ben-saunders-reveals-bellator-and-bjorn-rebney-almost-made-him-retire\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MMA News","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Exclusive MMA Interviews","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Ben Saunders reveals Bellator and Bjorn Rebney almost made him retire"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/700e11a4d77666aed250058808e16134","name":"Cole Shelton","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/cole-shelton\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54463"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}