The UFC's deal with Reebok has been one of the most talked about topics of the last year, and the vast majority of fans, fighters and media pundits feel it's more of a detriment than a boon to fighter economy. The athletes at the top of the food chain have been hit hardest, some to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, with a few even noting 6 figure losses.

Not everyone is singing the blues, though. There are some that are finding that the Reebok deal is quite a blessing; exciting welterweight, Ben Saunders is one of those people. In a recent interview with the Three Amigos Podcast, Saunders discussed past sponsorships gone awry and how the current deal suits him to a T.

"It is what it is. You can either fight for the UFC, and play by their rules, or you can move on and go do your own thing. It's their show. They get to dictate how they want it, and as an independent contractor, you get to choose whether you want to abide by their rules or go somewhere else.

The biggest issue is for people already in contract automatically being forced with these new rules, which was pretty much everybody, even for me, because when I signed back up with the UFC, the Reebok deal wasn't in order. Still, I'm a different case. I'm extremely grateful to be back. I had a ridiculous amount of problems with sponsors in the past, like a ridiculous amount.

My first sponsor agent from my first stint in the UFC-which was seven fights-I never got paid in full for any of those fights. In fact, I'm still owed about $25K that I'll never receive from those sponsors. I just got fucked. It's a sad situation, but I was young.

I was coming off the show, I was 24-years-old and I trusted the wrong person. They took advantage of me and they fucked everybody they worked with. Now, that person is lost in space and no one knows who the fuck he is, where he is, and he has no clients. That's just an honestly real and shitty part of the game.

I was coming off the show, I was 24-years-old and I trusted the wrong person. They took advantage of me and they fucked everybody they worked with. Now, that person is lost in space and no one knows who the fuck he is, where he is, and he has no clients. -Ben Saunders

Since then, even with the name I feel I've created for myself, sponsors aren't easy to get. It's not easy to get the payments from them, and it's not easy to get a lot of money. There are a select few guys that have bigger names, bigger credentials, bigger fights and bigger recognition that are probably losing a lot of money from this new deal and that really sucks for them. It's a double-edged sword.

All I know is this will be my 11th fight, so I believe that puts me in the $10K bracket. Ten thousand dollars, guaranteed, plus I get all the free gear. Most people are complaining about the gear, and they think it's shit, but this is all stuff that I would actually wear, as opposed to a fucking U-Haul company shirt. What the fuck am I going to do with a U-Haul company shirt? I'm not going to walk down the street or wear that out anywhere.

The $5K that I got for my last couple fights, shit, I was getting that in my other fights, too. Maybe I had shitty connections, maybe my management wasn't doing a good enough job...who knows. I just know that for me, personally, I never got the $50K, $100K, six-figure...you fucking name it. This Florida boy never got anything spectacular. Hopefully the sport keeps growing and money keeps getting better for everybody."

You can check out more from this great interview here or via the embedded player below. Ben's segment starts at the 1:06:55 mark of the audio. Remember, if you're looking for us on SoundCloud or iTunes, we're under the MMA Nation name. Follow our Twitter accounts: Stephie Haynes, Three Amigos Podcast, Iain Kidd and Mookie Alexander or our Facebook fan page, Three Amigos Podcast.