Joseph Benavidez wants to make sure another loss does NOT happen again.
Often times in mixed martial arts, it takes a loss to catapult a fighter to the next level.
After winning his first 10 professional fights, Joseph Benavidez tasted defeat for the first time at WEC 42, losing a unanimous decision to Dominick Cruz.
It’s a taste that Benavidez is determined not to experience again anytime soon.
“I never felt a loss before. I didn’t like it,” Benavidez told MMAMadness.com. “All this has done is re-focused me and inspired me a ton since the loss. My mind feels totally different, my hunger is totally different.”
Benavidez will look to get back to his winning ways at WEC 45, when he will face dangerous submission artist Rani Yahya, a world jiu-jitsu champion who has won 14 of his 15 victories by submission.
While most fighters would avoid going to the ground with Yahya at all costs, Benavidez believes that he has the advantage no matter where the fight goes.
“Where he’s strong in his grappling, I’m strong also,” Benavidez said. “I feel good just grappling him, and in a fight I get to punch him, I can be physical, I can stand up, run around, whatever. And then where his weaknesses are, I’m strong also.”
One area that Benavidez does not want to be is on his back with Yahya on top.
“I really don’t want him to be on top of me, so I’ve been working my takedown defense and I’ve always been good at getting up off my back. I have a bigger advantage on the feet,” Benavidez said.
In a situation where Yahya is not able to take Benavidez down, it is possible that he could pull guard and try to utilize his submissions skills off of the back. Benavidez cautions that that would not be a good strategy.
“He pulls guard, he’s going to get hit a few times,” Benavidez said. “His takedowns are alright, he’s taken down some good guys, because he’s so almost desperate for them. He doesn’t have great conventional wrestling, but he’ll get you to the ground. I’m definitely expecting to defend a few of those and have him pull guard, and when he pulls guard I’m just going to try to unload on him.”
Eventually, Benavidez expects to outlast Yahya. And while he credits his opponent for being the type of fighter that will, “fight to the death,” Benavidez sees some clear cut advantages that will work in his favor.
“Some of my better strengths are my pace and my cardio, and he’s not known for having a great pace or a great cardio,” Benavidez said. “He’s the type of guy that has to get a hold of you, and I just see him not being able to get a hold of me at all and not being able to touch me and me scrambling out of all his attempts and just hurting him when he puts himself in bad positions and eventually getting a stoppage in the second or third round.”
Part of Benavidez’s confidence can be attributed to his training camp. As he explains it, working with guys like Urijah Faber on a day-to-day basis is what brought Benavidez to a different level.
“Who you train with every day, that’s who’s getting you ready for these big fights when you go in there,” Benavidez said. “I catapulted to another level just being able to train with Urijah.”
“Getting pushed every day in practice really makes the fight easy,” Benavidez said.
At WEC 45, Benavidez will put his re-focused energy to the test. In doing so, he can get back on the road to a WEC fighter, and he can continue to cement himself as one of the top up-and-comers in the sport today.
