Benavidez banking on maturity to beat Figueiredo

Joseph Benavidez believes a more mature mindset might be the key to becoming the new flyweight champion at UFC Norfolk.

After 33 professional fights and 14 years dedicated to mixed martial arts, flyweight contender Joseph Benavidez might finally lift UFC gold.

Benavidez, paired up against hard-hitting flyweight Deiveson Figueiredo to challenge for the vacant belt, feels like he was too eager to become the champion in the past. He twice failed to beat Demetrious Johnson for the title and lost to Dominick Cruz, too, when he challenged for the WEC bantamweight title.

Now, in an interview with Combate, the 35-year-old believes all that experience has made him a more mature fighter, one who could finally be mentally prepared to come out of a title fight with a belt around his waist.

“It seems different than the other times, but it’s always the same kind of fight. I just need to look at this like any other fight and that’s what I do, you know? Sometimes, you put the title on a pedestal when it’s really just another fight. Nowadays, I’m more mature. I’ve grown a lot as a person. I was 20 something, now I’m 35 years old, that’s a lot of professional experience. I’m mature in the cage and in my mindset, maybe in life. When I lost my title fights, I noticed people still loved me and I learned I didn’t need that to be validated in anything.”

On the other side of the Octagon, Benavidez will meet a vicious striker in Figueiredo, a fighter who managed to finish four of his six UFC wins and seems eager to do the same on Saturday. Although it might be a scary thought to share the Octagon with someone like Figueiredo, the veteran actually enjoys the notoriety his opponent brings with his style, emphasizing it’s good for the division to have fighters like that.

“This fight was bound to happen at some point. To be honest, I’ve always had my eye on him because I like to keep my eyes open to all the division, not only my opponents. I’m a fan of the division, I want everyone in the division to be successful. When I see a flyweight on a card, I want them to win a bonus. I want them to have an exciting performance, I want people to talk about it. Deiveson is one of those guys. When I first saw him, I thought ‘That’s an exciting guy’. Figueiredo is aggressive, he knows what people like.”

Currently on a three-fight winning streak, Joseph Benavidez (28-5) scored wins over Alex Perez, Dustin Ortiz and most recently, in June 2019, Jussier Formiga. His last loss dates back to June 2018, when he dropped a split decision to Sergio Pettis.

Now, the 35-year-old is expected to take on Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Fight Night 169’s main event, in Norfolk, Virginia, on February 29.