UTICA, N.Y. – Considering Ben Saunders was coming into Friday’s UFC Fight Night 131 off two consecutive knockout losses, getting a first-round finish of his own must have been a huge relief, right? Well, Saunders (22-9-2 MMA, 8-6 UFC) said, “I guess” that is the case. But, to be honest, did that look like a pressured man walking out to meet fellow vet Jake Ellenberger (31-14 MMA, 10-10 UFC) in the octagon at Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, N.Y.? “Going into this fight, everybody was talking about the pressure on my shoulders, and I just kind of put my mentality back to where I was when I was on (“The Ultimate Fighter 6”),” Saunders said after the FS1-televised main-card welterweight bout. “(I) was just ear-to-ear smiling.
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