Issue 089
June 2012
By Joseph Benavidez, UFC flyweight tournament finalist,
It’s great we now have a flyweight division in the UFC, although it was inevitable that it was going to come. I was in a complicated situation at 135lb, that’s why flyweight is such a great opportunity for me. It is hard and means a lot of sacrifices, but it’s definitely worth it.
It’s somewhere I think I can really find my niche. I’ve lost twice to the bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz so it would be hard to get a rematch. I want to fight at both weights and I think I can. Going down to 125lb will hopefully establish me as a champion and top-10 pound-for-pound fighter.
The flyweight division is still really new for a lot of people, but wait and see what excitement it will generate as it develops. Even though a lighter weight fight is more exciting, they often feature on the undercard, whereas bigger name guys – like heavyweights -– who the promoters know aren’t going to be as exciting, they get top billing. But I think if you put the lighter weights up there and people watch them, they’ll remember the names because of the quality of the fight. Then the next time they fight, people will want to watch them again.
Take UFC 129 in Toronto last year. I think José Aldo and Mark Hominick totally sold that event. The UFC knew all eyes were going to be on Georges St Pierre, but throwing them on before in the co-main event got everyone really excited. It was a great fight. That’s how all the fights are in the 125 and 135 divisions. It’s only a matter of time. Obviously we’re going to continue to be exciting and put on shows. There’s only one way for the lighter weight classes to go, and that’s up.
Me and Demetrious Johnson is a fight many people would love to see. Not only do I play that fight through in my mind, I’ve played it in the new THQ video game – which is awesome. They underestimated my ‘package’ though, which I’m not happy about. It makes me look like a girl so I was a little disappointed about that. I played against Demetrious on there and I beat him.
A little about me, I grew up in New Mexico. I come from a single-parent household with two brothers. My mother worked a regular job. We were not wealthy by any means, but she definitely worked hard to give us everything we had. One great thing about being from New Mexico and having the background that I do meant that I had to work for everything that I had. I was used to having nothing so I really appreciate everything I have now.
I have no complaints about my childhood. I loved it. My mom is still the driving force in my life, my biggest inspiration and my best friend. I do a lot of it just for her. She’s my biggest fan as well. I take her to every fight.
MMA was such a huge blessing for me when it came along, and I feel so lucky that all this has happened to me. I had a regular job in New Mexico. I was a screen printer, doing shirts and signs. Then MMA started to boom and there were little gyms and clubs popping up. All these guys would say they were fighters and I would beat all of them up in the gym, so I started training MMA.
In my fourth amateur fight I beat a guy who’d had some pro fights. I looked him up and found out he’d wrestled at Oklahoma State with a 7-0 pro MMA record, and he outweighed me by 13lb. I started seeing it more on TV. The Griffin vs Bonnar fight marked a big turning point for me. I saw that and thought, ‘Wow, people actually do this for a living.’
Then the other major turning point was a meeting with Urijah Faber in Sacramento. I was looking for a place to train and somebody told me that he had a gym. He was the face of the WEC at the time and having a guy like him tell me that I was incredibly talented and could make a living out of it, I was like, ‘I’m doing this.’ I drove my Lincoln ‘86 Continental 20 hours to Sacramento – and I haven’t look back since.
