Why Joseph Benavidez is so frustrated waiting on Henry Cejudo for UFC title shot

NEW YORK – Joseph Benavidez has been promised a UFC flyweight title shot, but there’s just one problem: He doesn’t know who he’ll be facing.

Dual champion Henry Cejudo, who holds both flyweight and bantamweight belts, is currently sidelined with an injury and targeting a March return, but Cejudo doesn’t seem too keen on making the cut back down to 125 pounds.

No. 1 contender Benavidez (28-5 MMA, 15-3 UFC), who’s received UFC president Dana White’s word that he’s next in line, is content to wait for Cejudo (15-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC), but Cejudo doesn’t even know which title he’ll defend next.

So that leaves Benavidez waiting on the sidelines perhaps for no reason, and he’s not OK with that.

“There’s not an urgency right now because he doesn’t fight till March,” Benavidez told MMA Junkie on Thursday. “Where for me, I would just like an urgency because I don’t want to wait till March to not fight him.”

Benavidez, who’s on a three-fight winning streak, just wants clarity. While he believes he could very well be fighting for a vacant title, most likely vs. fellow surging flyweight Deiveson Figueiredo, he’d prefer if Cejudo made a decision sooner rather than later.

“If I fought in January for a vacant flyweight title, I could be defending by March,” Benavidez said. “So I don’t want to wait for him to make a decision in January when he starts training, and it not be me. I think that’s just the problem with this double champ stuff. It’s always real cool when it happens, but then a year down the road, you’re just like ‘well, what are they really doing, what is this guy doing,’ and it just disables everybody else. One person, it’s cool for.”

“I just want urgency because I know matchmakers are already looking at January cards, like I could fight for a vacant title in January,” Benavidez added. “I’m willing to wait till March a hundred percent. But like I said, I’m not going to wait until March to fight for a vacant (title), where it’s like you didn’t want to fight anyway.”

Benavidez is the last man to hand Cejudo a loss, edging him out in a closely contested battle in 2016. So for Benavidez, he’s just tired of waiting around for too long and being left in the dark.

“I already beat the guy. It’s really up to him to come back and defend,” Benavidez said. “If I just have to beat another flyweight for the vacant title, that’s fine. So it’s really on him.”