Benavidez Releases Statement Following TKO Loss

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

For Joseph Benavidez, the fight will continue.

Benavidez fell short in his third shot at UFC gold on Saturday night in Norfolk, Virginia, taking a TKO loss to Deiveson Figueiredo at 1:54 of round 2 (watch the finish here). Following the fight, a dejected “Joe Jitsu” was interviewed by Michael Bisping in the cage and man, he sounded defeated in every sense of the word.

“I feel like this is isn’t real right now but I’m in some freaking nightmare,” Benavidez said. “I had a lot of visions of talking to you after and a lot of things that were going to happen and that didn’t. Sh*t man, life’s tough like that. Everybody’s going through ups and downs everywhere. This is mine. It’s on display. Um … lucky to be alive, I guess? But I worked my ass off for that and it didn’t go great. Thank you guys for coming out, though.”

Always great to end the event on a positive note, isn’t it?

Well, fortunately Benavidez is sounding more positive the day after the event. The flyweight contender took to Instagram to post some OutKast lyrics that imply his quest for gold isn’t over.

We done come a long way like them slim-ass cigarettes From Virginia,” the lyrics from ‘Elevator’ go. “This ain’t gon’ stop, so we just gon’ continue.”

Joe’s wife and UFC anchor Megan Olivi also had a hard night watching her hubby losing in rough fashion.

That doesn’t change the love one bit though.

We feel pretty much the same about “Joe B-Wan Kenobi” too, our “Beefcake,” “The Joe Jitsu Practitioner.” Here’s hoping he climbs back into position for another title shot down the road. Until then, the gate is gonna be pretty fearsome for anyone hoping to capture flyweight gold.