UFC News: Joseph Benavidez shares his thoughts on having to fight for a vacant title

A title has no less value for Joseph Benavidez, just because it has been relinquished and he does not get to fight the previous owner of the belt for it. Benavidez will be competing against Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Norfolk for the vacant Flyweight title that was ceded by Henry Cejudo. He opened up about what the fight means for him on UFC Unfiltered podcast.

Joseph Benavidez: A title is a title

As far as Benavidez is concerned, he has no regrets that the title fight could not happen against Cejudo. He is happy fighting for the title and that is what matters to him.

"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."

Not only that, Benavidez considers the question of whether he could have beaten Cejudo at the title fight or not to be pointless, because he already has. Moreover, it is Cejudo who gave up the belt and also seemed not keen on avenging his previous loss to Benavidez either. In his eyes, Cejudo is the one losing out here in any case.

"It's almost undisputed or whatever because I already beat Cejudo... 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."

Benavidez will take on Figueiredo at UFC Fight Night i Norfolk on the 29th of February, 2020.