Joseph Benavidez is finally getting another shot at flyweight gold as he is set to take on Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Norfolk for the vacant flyweight title.
For Benavidez, although many thought a rematch with Cejudo for the belt made sense, yet he doesn’t care that it is not for one reason. That is because he already beat Cejudo.
“It’s almost like an undisputed or whatever because I already beat Cejudo,” Benavidez said on the latest “UFC Unfiltered” podcast (via MMA Junkie). “Figueiredo is challenging me, whatever you want to look at it. Basically, a title is a title. The goal wasn’t to beat a certain person, it was to win a title, and that’s happening. This one, I think in any other, like, way this could have happened, you could ask these questions, that it could be but, having already beat Cejudo, who vacated it, at the end of the day, he’s the one not putting up a fight, not trying to avenge the loss.”
All in all, Joseph Benavidez knows Figueiredo presents challenges to him and it is an interesting fight. If he wants to win the title he will need to solve them.
But, he doesn’t view this as any less of a title fight or meaning that Cejudo is not apart of it.
“Like I said, the title’s the title,” Benavidez said. “I already beat the guy that has it now. The way I look at it is he gave it up without even a fight.”
