Joseph Benavidez Explains Meaning Behind ‘Joey Two Times’ Title Fight Callout
Joseph Benavidez proved yet again why he should be the No. 1-contender in the UFC flyweight division.
After his most recent fight, the title contender got creative with his latest attempt to get the attention of UFC President Dana White and UFC flyweight champion Henry Cejudo.
Benavidez introduced in his post-fight speech “Joey Two Times,” which is his nickname that is a reference to a previous fight that he had. He gave context about it while speaking with the media at the post-fight press conference:
“The ‘Joey Two Times’ wasn’t necessarily that,” Benavidez said (H/T to MMA Fighting). “This started a while back when I fought Alex Perez, just my coaches were calling me Joey Two Times because they had that weird stoppage where I had to stop him twice in the night, remember the ref jumped in. So they’re like, ‘Joey Two Times they call you.’ And my wife’s Italian so she loved it and started calling me that.
“The next fight I fought Dustin Ortiz and I was like, ‘I already beat him once.’ And my coach was like, ‘That’s because you’re Two Times, you’ve got to beat him again.’ ‘Oh yeah, that’s true.’ Then Formiga came on and I was like, ‘Oh my God. And If I fight him, then I have to…’ It’s like a prophecy, in the future then I have to fight Cejudo.
“So it wasn’t necessarily to get the Cejudo thing, but we’re just trying to be goofy and creative like that. It made sense, prophecy-wise, I guess, now it does too. It made for a fun callout, but the performances I think do the job themselves. I’m not a guy with a schtick or hey, I’m gonna say this and compromise my whole character to be somebody else, it’s just a fun thing.
“The performances I think speak for themselves as far as getting a shot. The fact is the guy’s on top of the world, I beat him, why wouldn’t he want to come and avenge a loss?”
Benavidez beat Jussier Formiga with an impressive stoppage at the UFC Minneapolis event on Saturday that likely locked himself into a title fight. Demetrious Johnson had reigned over the UFC flyweight division for some time and had beaten Benavidez twice already.
At the time, it seemed that “DJ” was the only thing that stood in the way of Benavidez and the championship. If a champion beats a worthy challenger twice then it’s hard for that contender to get a third shot. This was at a time where Benavidez was one of the very few in the division that gave Johnson a challenge.
That has changed as Johnson is no longer champion and a part of the ONE Championship promotion. Thus, when Cejudo comes back from recovery after undergoing surgery, it appears that he’ll be next in line.
