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FIGHT ODDS

Beyond The Fight: Benavidez vs. Johnson

Jack EncarnacaoSep 21, 2012


BENAVIDEZ


“I’ve always just liked to be unique, I guess. Ever since I can remember everyone’s always like, ‘What the hell are you wearing?’ I just didn’t like to wear what everyone else wore, listen to what everyone listened to. I guess going against the grain, but not really on purpose or anything. Stuff that interested everyone else didn’t really interest me, so that’s more what it is. I don’t see myself as a rebellious person, but hey man, you’ve got to separate yourself somehow. I’m not like an artist or anything, so I get to express myself just by being an individual. I was always the kid in high school wrestling with the dyed hair and the different singlets and stuff.

That’s how I approach fighting. It’s fun for me, and I almost look at it like it’s an experience … I live quite a boring life, especially since I stopped drinking. I don’t have crazy experiences. I don’t do crazy things. I’m basically kind of like an old soul at heart. I watch a lot of TV, enjoy my food. I mean, I don’t do what a typical 28-year-old fighter would be doing. I haven’t drank alcohol in eight years, so that totally eliminates the club scene. I’m really into just classic music, classic rock, all that stuff. Antique shopping, thrift store shopping. Everyone’s always making fun of me because sometimes they say I dress like an old man, and I’m going to wear the exact same clothes when I’m like 40 years old that I wear now.

The fight is just a time when I go out and express myself, and kind of feel alive, I guess. I just look at it as an experience. Like, man, what am I made of?”

JOHNSON



“My stepfather, my brother’s dad, he comes from a military background. So (there was) a lot of military punishment (in the house). You know, staying in the corner with your arms up for a long time. And not for spilling juice on the carpet or anything, but just for waking up early and watching cartoons or Godzilla.

It is what it is. He did what he had to do, and I think that’s made me more humble and more grounded, not being a punk kid growing up. Nowadays you see all these kids talking back to their moms and smoking weed, doing drugs, and just doing all this bad stuff. But I guarantee you, if they had the same upraising I did, then they wouldn’t act like that. It sucked at the time, but now when I look back, I’m kind of glad he did it, because I’m not an idiot, I guess you could say.

If I get pulled over by a cop, I get so scared because I think I’m going to jail. I don’t play games, you know. I do speed, I’m not going to lie. But as for drinking and driving and, you know, stealing and committing crimes, no. I follow the law. I am not going to be one of those idiots like: ‘Local mixed martial arts star Demetrious Johnson is serving three years in jail for abusing his wife.’ No, it ain’t going to happen.”

Continue Reading » Page Five: Cutting Weight