Then Benavidez went through knee surgery, sidelining him for 18 months. When he returned in June, he lost a close split decision to Sergio Pettis. Yet in August, Cejudo took the belt from Johnson, and all of a sudden, everything was new again for Benavidez, despite the fact that he was coming off a loss to Pettis, one that he – and many other observers – believe he should have won.
“It wasn’t a bad night altogether,” he said of the Pettis fight. “Physically, it was the best I ever felt, and you’ve got to look at the positive side of things in this sport, and you also can’t really dwell on things, whether good or bad. I can have the best win ever, and I have to go on to the next one. I can have the worst loss ever and I can’t dwell on that either. But it was a different experience coming back from the injury and losing a six-fight win streak. I genuinely thought I won and performed great. I look at it and I see segments in that fight where I’m like, ‘Whoa, that’s the best I’ve looked.’
“It was a standup fight for the most part and I outstruck Sergio Pettis,” Benavidez continues. “I was the first person to ever do that in the UFC. I was also the only person to grapple in the fight, so I don’t know where I lost the fight. It was close, but it shouldn’t be that close. I have the skills to not make it a split decision, to not make it a competitive fight. I was a little overanxious to get back in there and I didn’t fight like the veteran I was; I was more like the excited young kid being able to fight again. I was just having so much fun fighting.”
He was hoping to have more fun in Denver earlier this month, but Ray Borg was forced out of the bout due to injury. So here he is in his hometown of Las Vegas to face Perez. It’s still an important clash between contenders to close out the year, but Benavidez isn’t about to lose that smile on his face. He’s here, he’s top five in the world, and he’s exactly where he wants to be. He’s come a long way from wearing Target shorts on fight night.
