Ben Saunders no longer under contract with UFC, meets Jacob Volkmann

[Pacemaker Joe]

After the Cote fight, which was the last fight on his contract, he decided to focus on some personal issues instead of immediately resigning. His grandma being sick was a big thing among his other personal issues, and he put signing with the UFC on the back burner. When he finally called Joe Silva, Joe told them that there wasn't anymore room on the roster at that current time. Ben was apparently fine with that right now, and he'll more than likely be back within a fight or two.

That and after the Lesnar testing fiasco, they were unwilling to rush him back in, he would have had to wait 4 months. When he didn't sign right away, he dropped out of the testing pool, so he's considered "retired" as far as USADA was concerned.