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Joseph Benavidez is happy with his performance in second fight with Dominick Cruz
By Zach Arnold | September 5, 2010
HECTOR CASTRO: “It looked like your game plan early was that you were going to react to his movement, wait for him to come in and then punish him when he came in. Was that part of the game plan? Because towards the end of the fight you were a little more aggressive in coming after him more.”
JOSEPH BENAVIDEZ: “Yeah, definitely part of the game plan to get him when he comes in because the thing with Dominick (Cruz), I mean it’s basically impossible to go forward and hit him because if you throw a feint, nonetheless throw a punch, he’s gone five feet out of the way, he’s not going to sit there and try to counter. He’s going to get out of the way, you know, and he moves back in a way where it looks like he’s doing something also so you kind of have to wait for him to come in and then even when he does that it’s hard to plug him or change your levels and take him down because he comes in at such an angle, he’s not straight in front of you hitting you but you know I think I did a great job of waiting for him and like I said I was being patient, I was landing high-percentage shots and you know, like I said, it’s just the judges’ saw it takedowns more than punches.”
HECTOR CASTRO: “Now, your fancy footwork, I mean especially like Dominick and guys like Frankie Edgar, they’ve been having a lot of success with it. How hard is it for yourself, I mean you know, a fighter, you’re normally a very aggressive fighter, you know you bring it every fight. Wrestling base, good stand-up as well but how hard is it when you’re facing a guy with great footwork like that?”
JOSEPH BENAVIDEZ: “Hey, I mean obviously it’s hard. It’s hard to fight guys like that. I mean the two guys you named are both world champions so you know it’s definitely hard to fight a guy like that, it’s a strategic fight which I think is hard for some people like me some other guys that just want to go in there and basically take someone’s head off. I mean I have a strategy, too, but yeah it’s hard to fight a guy that’s not necessarily fighting you, you know, or is not you know um… doing the things that most people would do, staying in there in the pocket, catching punches, or turning punches so you know it’s different and like I said, I think I did a good job of figuring it out. I figure I think I’m one of the best fighters in the world and I did a great job of fighting like that, you know just came down to some small things but yeah like I said it’s definitely hard to fight a guy that’s running.”
HECTOR CASTRO: “Now, how is it good for you? I mean your camp is developing, you know obviously Urijah Faber, you have a lot of good fighters, Chad Mendes, but you also got a couple of new guys. I mean how good is that for you guys to add not only other fighters but you know top competition?”
JOSEPH BENAVIDEZ: “It’s awesome, man, you know you’re only as good as your team and when you first start fighting you need to find a great team to train with, a team that brings out the best in you and I did that a long time ago, three and a half years ago I moved from New Mexico and you know it was me and Faber and a few guys and I was happy with that, I feel like I was getting better and now that we’re just adding guys on it makes it that much more. When you’re in the room fighting with top-quality guys like that, some of the best, toughest, strongest guys in the world, you know it makes the fight that much easier. It gives you a lot of confidence going into the fight to know that you’ve done it for 10 weeks now with the toughest guys and you know you got to go in there for 25 minutes or 15 minutes with another guy so it really helps and everyone just has a great mentality, everyone’s on the same page and that makes it also great to be around.”
HECTOR CASTRO: “Well, what’s next for you, man? I mean, you know, obviously you’re coming off this loss. Where do you go from here?”
JOSEPH BENAVIDEZ: “The way I look at it, you know, I’m not going to lose a fight to anyone in the division. I feel like, like I said earlier, I feel like I’m the best fighter in the division. One of the best and everyone’s tough so there’s going to be some great fights ahead for me, there’s so many people out there in the 35 division that people don’t even know they’re great fighters and a lot of the other known guys, so I’m looking forward to fighting any of these guys and the way I look at it, you know, I’m not going to lose and Cruz might be at the top for a while so if I don’t lose I mean there’s no choice but to give me a title shot again because I’m just going to beat everyone until they do.”
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
If I was him, I would be happy with my performance as well.
He is a natural Flyweight who went 25 minutes with the #1 ranked Bantamweight in the world.
They should give him decent fights, but no real conteners until they open up Flyweight, and then give him a quick title shot in that division. He is talented but undersized for Bantamweight.
Yea he should be the first guy they push at 125 whenever they start up the class. Maybe fig out a way to bring in Gomez from bellator for a title fight or the guy from Brazil who beat “BJ”.