Joseph Benavidez Not Impressed With Henry Cejudo Ahead of TUF 24 Finale

Joseph Benavidez spoke with MMAjunkie about his fight with Henry Cejudo at TUF 24 Finale and more. Some highlights are below:

On his opinion of Henry Cejudo after TUF 24: “(Our relationship is) worse. Before, it wasn’t much. I was just annoyed by him. But now it’s like I don’t like him. So there’s still no major emotional thing there, but before it was like, ‘The guy’s annoying, but I don’t know him that well.’ But after seeing him for six weeks, he’s a real doofus. Now I just actually don’t like him, I guess you could say. That’s funny because for me I’ve never really had to dislike anybody that I’ve fought. I never talk smack to anybody or anything, so it’s a little different. It’s just funny because the things I thought about him (stood) so true after seeing him for six weeks.”

On Cejudo’s skills: “I wasn’t surprised that Demetrious [Johnson] finished him. Look at his fights. No one has ever been impressed by one of his fights. Not once. You’ve never looked at a Henry Cejudo fight and been like, ‘That was super cool. Can’t wait to see him fight again.’ … From watching every other fight, I wasn’t really sure what he was going to do to him. He’s never really hurt anybody or finished them or anything of the sort.”

On being a coach on TUF 24: “One of the best experiences of my career. After doing this 10, going on 11 years – to go and experience this now and look at the fights from a whole other experience, on ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ it was awesome. Definitely challenging, 100 percent rewarding and just an all-around great experience for me. I enjoyed it. You hear people not enjoy it or say it was too much or say it was this. I didn’t know what to expect, especially with the format. I went in, and I was a little bitter about the whole situation. A guy getting a title shot, and now I’m supposed to help him? But once we got in there and got settled in, I couldn’t help but care.”