Joseph Benavidez tells Henry Cejudo ‘defend or relinquish’
Joseph Benavidez has been told by the UFC he is next in line for the flyweight title. The problem is, Henry Cejudo is the current champion and is sidelined with an injury. He has also been calling out bantamweights.
For Benavidez, he is worried Cejudo won’t drop down in weight again to defend his flyweight belt.
“For me, there’s still an option of him not doing [the fight],” Benavidez admitted to MMA Fighting. “There’s a percentage of that. “‘Triple C,’ I don’t think he’d want to give up a ‘C’ or the chance to avenge a loss, but now it’s working on a timeline. When is he going to be healthy? When can he give a word about defending?
“Because I don’t want to wait until February, and he says he’s ready to fight, but it’s not going to be at 125. That’s what I’m trying to avoid right now.”
However, the UFC has told Henry Cejudo he needs to defend the flyweight belt next or will be stripped. So, for Joseph Benavidez, he has a simple message for ‘Triple C’ and that is ‘defend or relinquish.’
“We know the deal — it’s defend or relinquish,“ Benavidez said. “So let’s get a timeline now of when will he have to make a decision to defend. Because I’m OK with waiting, but to what end if it goes past a year and the guy ends up relinquishing the title, when we could have got things going in the division to keep momentum.”
Really, for Joseph Benavidez, this entire situation is becoming frustrating as he wants to fight for the belt next.
“Cejudo is out there being weird,” Benavidez said. “I actually did comment on one of his things the other day. It wasn’t crazy – I just said, ‘Stop asking who’s next when you’re making videos every day and you know it’s me.’ You’ve been told it’s me.
