Perennial flyweight title contender Joseph
Benavidez is retiring from mixed martial arts at 37 years
old.
Multiple outlets confirmed that Benavidez has elected to remove
himself from the USADA drug testing pool. Benavidez exits the sport
with a 28-8 career mark that included four attempts at flyweight
gold in the UFC and a failed bid at the 135-pound belt in World
Extreme Cagefighting.
MMAjunkie.com first brought word of Benavidez’s retirement.
“I’ve known for a while,” Benavidez told
MMAFighting.com. “I’ve always fought to be the best and also
because it was fun. I probably knew my last title shot was my last
shot ever so that was kind of not going to happen for me.
“I still knew I could compete in the top five. I could beat guys in
the top five, top 10 easy but one of the main things is a lot of
these guys that are coming up that are killers or I see them, it’s
their UFC debut and they take pictures with me in the back and say,
‘I’ve looked up to you for so long, I used to get off school and
watch you in WEC with my dad, I look up to you’ — it’s like, I
don’t want to fight these guys next, these killers. I don’t want to
beat them up or have them beat me up. There was no more fights that
were going to be fun.”
Retirement adventures are gonna be fun My
King Forever @JoeJitsu— Megan Olivi (@MeganOlivi)
September 15, 2021
Benavidez last appeared at UFC 259 in March, when he dropped a
three-round verdict to flyweight contender Askar
Askarov. Prior to that, he twice lost to Deiveson
Figueiredo in championship bouts, falling via second-round TKO
at UFC Fight Night 169 in February 2020 and via first-round
submission at UFC Fight Night 172 in July 2020.
Benavidez took part in the UFC’s inaugural flyweight title fight,
losing a split decision to Demetrious
Johnson at UFC 152 in September 2012. He would lose to “Mighty
Mouse” via first-round KO in a championship rematch at UFC on Fox 9
in December 2013. The Las Cruces, N.M., native also challenged
Dominick
Cruz for the bantamweight throne at WEC 50, dropping a
five-round verdict in August 2010.
Though he was unable to capture a belt in a major organization,
Benavidez was among the top contenders at 125 pounds for the
duration of his UFC career. His resume includes victories over the
likes of Henry
Cejudo, Jussier
Formiga (twice), Dustin
Ortiz, Alex Perez,
John
Moraga, Ian McCall and
Yasuhiro
Urushitani, to name a few. At bantamweight, he earned wins
against Miguel
Torres, Eddie
Wineland, Jeff Curran
and Rani
Yahya, among others. Benavidez leaves the sport tied with
Johnson for the most victories in UFC flyweight history with
13.