Joseph Benavidez came up short in his bid to become the UFC flyweight champion at UFC Fight Night: Figueiredo vs. Benavidez II.
The fighter has now lost four title shots in the UFC and Benavidez knows that his opportunity to get UFC gold may be done with.
“It’s a tough thing because I do wake up every day knowing I’m good enough to be a world champion, and I could be,” Benavidez told MMA Junkie Radio. “But at the same time, that part of me has been kinda like, ‘Oh (expletive), well that was probably my last title fight ever.' As far as fitting in, I don’t see a special part in there. I’ll always still be the longest reigning guy and the person who was in the first UFC title fight and first flyweight fight in general. But other than that, it’s just going out there and having fun and competing. That’s my place. It’s just actually being an athlete and doing that.”
Benavidez was defeated four times in flyweight title fights, twice to Demetrious Johnson and twice to Deiveson Figueiredo. Even though Benavidez has dropped four title fights, one thing he feels that he is still is one of the best fighters in the world.
“I’ll wake up and go into that whatever fight I may have thinking, ‘Hey, I’m the best in the world,'” Benavidez said. “I’m just gonna show it on this guy whether he’s No. 4 or No. 3 or whatever. I still feel like I’m the best in the world. I’m gonna go in with that every day. I’m gonna train every day with that notion and that confidence in my mind, but the belt is just something that I felt dammit, that was my last time when I got to do it. But there is some weird stuff happening when it comes to that. We’ll see how it goes, but other than that, I just enjoy the life part of it, and now fighting is part of my life. It’s not my total, total life, so it’s like ‘Hey, I’ll do all this and when the fight comes, I’ll concentrate on that and do it.’ But like I said, that part is always there, waking up and knowing here’s another chance to prove I’m the best, even if it’s not for the belt exactly. I’ll always go into a fight like that, but I just don’t know if that’s there yet, but you never know.”
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