Joseph Benavidez not aiming for rematch with Henry Cejudo: ‘That’s not my fight to chase’

With the vacant UFC flyweight title on the line in his next fight, contender Joseph Benavidez is not looking back. Benavidez is scheduled to take on Deiveson Figueiredo in the main event of UFC on ESPN+ 27 which will take place in Norfolk, Virginia for the title that Cejudo was stripped off as he maintains his focus on the bantamweight division and his title there.

During a recent interview with Jimmy Smith and Miesha Tate for MMA Tonight on Sirius XM, Benavidez was asked about the possibility of going up to bantamweight to chase a fight with the former flyweight champion, and there was little to no interest for him. Already holding a victory over Cejudo, Benavidez said he doesn’t feel a fight against Cejudo is one that he needs to go chase.

“Yeah, I’m not about the double-champ stuff. I mean, Henry is not someone I need to chase, I have the win over him, that was kind of his job to come and do it again,” Benavidez said. “I moved on after our fight, he’s moved on since then, that’s great too but it’s not my fight to go chase. Henry’s not the fight that I want or I need or I was trying to chase having a win over him. That’s his fight to get back.”

Benavidez would continue on and said that his focus remains in the flyweight division and he wants the best of the best in the 125 pound division.

“Honestly, it might sound crazy, but I just want to fight the next best person in my division,” Benavidez said. “No other gender, no other weight-class, no other anything, I just want to fight the best guys in my division, like I’ve been doing my whole career.”

Heading into his fight against Figueiredo, Benavidez is on a three-fight winning streak with wins over Jussier Formiga, Dustin Ortiz, and Alex Perez. Benavidez also only has one loss in his last 10 fights which was a split-decision loss to Sergio Pettis. The title challenger’s win over Cejudo came back in 2016 when he earned a split-decision victory at the TUF 24 Finale.

Would you like to see Joseph Benavidez face Henry Cejudo again in the future?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 2/21/2020.