Ben “Killa B” Saunders is a UFC fighter in the Welterweight division. He’s also the first person to have subbed someone with an omoplata in the UFC octagon.
(Video) First Omoplata Finish In UFC History From BJJ Black Belt Ben Saunders
He will be returning to the Octagon January 15th for a Fight Night bout against Court McGee.
In addition to the fight record of 20-7-2, Saunders is a bjj black belt under the great Ricardo Liborio. He started training bjj as self taught as far back as 1998. But Saunders has a unique contribution to bjj – he is a huge Eddie Bravo fan and he’s utilized his own version of the Rubber guard – the Eddie Bravo titled Killa B guard.
As they both told jiu-jitsu magazine back in 2015:
Ben: Yes, he jokes and calls it the Killa B guard. Instead of grabbing my right ankle with my left hand, I was grabbing the inside of my right knee and shin with my right hand, trapping my opponent’s left arm.
Eddie Bravo: Ben was playing a version of the rubber guard that I never play. Rubber guard is super technical. A lot of people mess with it. They say, “Oh I’ll just grab my ankle and go for a triangle.” It’s not like that. Ben was doing his own version of it and I didn’t want to tell him I didn’t agree with it because it was kind of working. We talked over social media, and then he was cut from the UFC and went to Bellator. I lost track of him. I started calling his version of the rubber guard the Killa B. He used it against a black belt (Luis Santos) and ended up tapping him with an Americana. It was pretty effective. Then I lost track of him again. Then I did the video with Rickson Gracie and Joe Rogan, and Ben realized he was doing things differently than I do. He tweeted me that he wanted to make the rubber guard part of his comeback into the UFC.
One thing’s for sure Ben sure appreciates the advantages BJJ has given him:
“I definitely think jiu-jitsu is one of greatest martial arts ever designed and created. The gentle art always caught my eye. I love the perception of size not mattering. That’s huge in my eyes, plus the fact that gender, male or female, doesn’t matter with proper technique. Everything about it – the intelligence of it, the chess match behind it…even if you’re lacking in athleticism, if you’re on point with technique and you’re intelligent about it, you can overcome any obstacle. Not to mention that it is one of the greatest workouts and ways of getting in shape in a fun environment. It’s amazing.”
