{"id":336482,"date":"2019-12-26T07:30:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T15:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=336482"},"modified":"2019-12-26T07:30:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T15:30:45","slug":"joseph-benavidez-doubts-henry-cejudo-ever-intended-to-return-to-flyweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/joseph-benavidez-doubts-henry-cejudo-ever-intended-to-return-to-flyweight\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Benavidez doubts Henry Cejudo ever intended to return to flyweight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henry Cejudo has been stripped of the UFC flyweight title, clearing the way for top flyweight contenders Joseph Benavidez and Deiveson Figueiredo to battle for the vacant belt in the main event of UFC Norfolk on February 29.<\/p>\n

This is an opportunity Benavidez has been chasing for years.<\/p>\n

While he previously challenged Demetrious Johnson for the flyweight belt, he failed to succeed on his mission, and another shot at gold has eluded him ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome when you work hard for something and I feel you never really deserve anything, especially in this sport but then then the way it came about it was really like the right thing happened,\u201d Benavidez told MMA Fighting<\/a> on Monday. \u201cIt was hard at first to accept like really?<\/p>\n

\u201cCause I didn\u2019t know what to expect with everything that\u2019s happening with \u201cTriple C\u201d and this and that. I was willing to wait for him but it all came together really quick. I\u2019m super happy about it. I\u2019ve been waiting forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cejudo won the UFC flyweight title in 2018, when he shocked the world by picking up a close and controversial split decision win over pound-for-pound stalwart Demetrious Johnson. He then defended the title once, stopping TJ Dillashaw in January, before heading up to bantamweight to chase and ultimately win that division’s title.<\/p>\n

According to Benavidez, Cejudo likely never intended to return to the flyweight division.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he ever did,\u201d Benavidez said when asked if he believed Cejudo would ever return to flyweight. \u201cI think we could have got him down for a crazy amount of money but that\u2019s not the fight to make for a ton of money and you have to earn that, too, from his perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I don\u2019t really think he ever did [intend on coming back to flyweight]. For one, he would never say it publicly but also anyone that I knew personally that talked to him said \u2018honestly, he\u2019s not interested in going down again.\u2019 I honestly never think he wanted to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think Joseph Benavidez will become a UFC champion in 2020?<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPENN.com<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 12\/26\/2019.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry Cejudo has been stripped of the UFC flyweight title, clearing the way for top flyweight contenders Joseph Benavidez and Deiveson Figueiredo to battle for the vacant belt in the main event of UFC Norfolk on February 29. This is an opportunity Benavidez has been chasing for years. While he previously challenged Demetrious Johnson for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":283220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10506,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nJoseph Benavidez doubts Henry Cejudo ever intended to return to flyweight | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Henry Cejudo has been stripped of the UFC flyweight title, clearing the way for top contenders Joseph Benavidez and Deiveson Figueiredo to battle for gold.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/joseph-benavidez-doubts-henry-cejudo-ever-intended-to-return-to-flyweight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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