Joseph Benavidez Says Henry Cejudo’s Recent Callouts ‘Don’t Make Sense’

Joseph Benavidez has accomplished everything imaginable in the gloriously violent sport of mixed martial arts. Everything, that is, except capture a world title.

Benavidez is on a quest to change that.

Arguably the best fighter in the relatively short history of the sport to never capture a world title for any major promotion he’s fought for, Benavidez again finds himself on the cusp of finally realizing his dreams of having a gold-plated belt wrapped around his waist.

He came up short via split decision against Dominick Cruz for the WEC’s bantamweight title in 2010; lost again by split nod to Demetrius Johnson for the inaugural UFC flyweight strap two years later; and then was knocked out by “Mighty Mouse” for the same title a year later. Oddly enough, the last time Benavidez was granted a title shot, he bested Jussier Formiga via first-round knockout. On Saturday he stopped Formiga in the second frame of their co-main event bout at UFC on ESPN 3.

Benavidez is used to fighting – and beating – opponents more than once, and he’s been given a playful nickname of “Joey Two Times” because of it.

“This started a while back when I fought Alex Perez,” Benavidez said at the post-fight press conference. “Just my coaches were calling me ‘Joey Two Times’ because they had that weird stoppage where I had to stop him twice in the night, remember the ref jumped in. So they’re like, ‘Joey Two Times’ they call you. The next fight I fought Dustin Ortiz and I was like, ‘I already beat him once. And my coach was like, ‘That’s because you’re Two Times, you’ve got to beat him again.’ Then Formiga came on and I was like, ‘Oh my God. And If I fight him, then I have to…’ It’s like a prophecy, in the future then I have to fight Cejudo.

“So it wasn’t necessarily to get the Cejudo thing, but we’re just trying to be goofy and creative like that,” he added. “It made sense, prophecy-wise, I guess, now it does too. It made for a fun callout, but the performances I think do the job themselves. I’m not a guy with a schtick. The performances I think speak for themselves as far as getting a shot. The fact is the guy’s on top of the world, I beat him, why wouldn’t he want to come and avenge a loss?”

Aside from Johnson, Benavidez is the only man to topple Cejudo in MMA competition. The Team Alpha Male veteran edged Cejudo via split decision nearly three years ago, but Cejudo has gone on to not only capture the UFC’s flyweight crown by toppling Johnson, but he smashed Marlon Moraes earlier this month to hoist the vacant bantamweight crown as well. The only drawback is that Cejudo might not even want to return to 125 pounds and defend his title, something Benavidez has no control over pertaining to a chance at the crown.

“I don’t even think of that stuff,” he said. “You can’t control any of that. I’m doing my job. But you can’t stop what somebody else is gonna do and I realized that, long enough in this sport, I’ve realized I can’t control what the hell everyone else is gonna do. People are crazy, people want different things, they think there’s some imaginary fight and title or something, so I don’t know what the heck he’s gonna do. But I know his last callouts [Cruz, Urijah Faber, Cody Garbrandt] didn’t make sense and I’m the only one that does make sense.”

If Benavidez does eventually get his desired rematch Cejudo for the flyweight throne, he doesn’t expect to be facing the same man as before.

“He’s improved crazy since then and even in that fight, I was like this guy is an incredible athlete,” he said. “When he says he’s one of the best combat athletes that’s ever done it, he’s proven it. There wasn’t a ton of weaknesses. I just had to believe in my game against his game. I knew I could be more active than him, I knew I could be a little more creative, I thought I’d be faster as well. It’s the same thing. When you’re fighting the best, best guys in the world, there’s no glaring weaknesses. There’s X-factors and there’s small openings that you have to prepare for better and that’s really it.”