Joseph Benavidez has bad intentions for Deiveson Figueiredo on Yas Island.
In the main event of UFC Fight Island 2, Benavidez and Figueiredo are having an immediate rematch. The two fought back at UFC Norfolk on February 29 for the vacant flyweight title. Yet, the Brazilian missed weight but went on to score a second-round KO win over Benavidez following a controversial headbutt.
Right after the fight ended, the talk was of an immediate rematch. The belt was still vacant, and the fight ended by the headbutt. So, when Benavidez steps into the Octagon again with Figueiredo, he has violent intentions for him.
“Figueiredo is a freaking villain. The way he went about things, he bragged in Portuguese about the fight finishing with a headbutt, and his translator didn’t translate it,” Benavidez said to ESPN. “Brazilian media contacted me, and they’re like, do you know he was talking about how he was proud that he headbutted you?
“I guess the easiest way to put it is that fighting is fighting, it goes sometimes with hurting people. That’s part of the game. You don’t want to, you just know, I have to hurt this guy, he’s trying to hurt me. What I felt after the last fight and the way it went about, not necessarily in the fairest way,” he continued. “It just makes me actually want to hurt him. Fighting is hurting people, but it makes me want to hurt him. I want you to hurt, I want you to feel dizzy when you get up every day and not know if your concussions are going to go away. I want you to freaking cry and be embarrassed and all that kind of stuff.
“So yeah, that is a different feeling towards this fight. Typically I don’t have that toward an opponent. I’m like, hey if I win, I win. If I hurt him, obviously that’s what we’re trained to do. But for this one, that’s the difference,” Benavidez concluded.
Entering the fight, Benavidez is a sizeable underdog but many believe he will finally become a UFC champion. But, for Figueiredo, he told BJPENN.com he plans to KO Benavidez once again.
No matter what, it appears the two flyweights want to knock the other one out on Saturday night.
What do you make of Joseph Benavidez’s comments?