Cruces fighter trains at Jackson-Wink
Benavidez is based out of Sacramento, Calif.
Normally, when Joseph Benavidez comes back to New Mexico, it’s about family, friends and food.
His most recent trip to the homeland, though, was all about fighting.
Benavidez, a 2002 Las Cruces High School graduate and the No. 1 challenger to UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, is scheduled to face Zach Makovsky tonight on a “UFC Fight Night” card in Las Vegas, Nev.
In preparation for the fight, Benavidez — who lives in Sacramento, Calif., and trains there with Team Alpha Male — spent a week at Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque.
“When I go to Las Cruces, or (anywhere in) New Mexico, for me that’s reserved to eat and hang out,” Benavidez said this week in a phone interview. “It’s like vacation for me.
“To go to New Mexico with the intention of training and not eating, but with the food still being there, was a little different.”
Benavidez (23-4) has made it clear he remains a Team Alpha Male fighter. But it’s not unusual for MMA athletes to expand their toolboxes by working with other fighters at other gyms.
A visit to Jackson-Wink, however, couldn’t have happened until recently.
For years, Benavidez and Jackson-Wink’s John Dodson both have been UFC flyweight contenders. Though they never met in the octagon, there always was that possibility.
Recent ly, though, Dodson announced he was moving up to the bantamweight division.
He and Dodson have always been friendly, Benavidez said, and “I always looked forward to working with him but couldn’t for the fact that we were (at the same weight). Once he went up to another one, and we got the blessing to train together, that was something I definitely wanted to do.”
Makovsky (19-6) has trained at Jackson-Wink in the past and fought Dodson last May, with Dodson winning by unanimous decision. But Benavidez said his visit to Jackson-Wink was not a fact-finding mission.
“(Dodson) and Zach know each other way better than I know Dodson,” he said. “Dodson’s not the type of guy to be like, ‘Hey, this is everything he does.’ ”
He’s left the Makovsky-specific portion of his training, he said, to his coaches at Team Alpha Male.
“As far as Jackson’s,” he said, “it was more just to go and get some new looks and get in some more high-level training.”
After turning pro in 2006, Benavidez thought he eventually would make his MMA home at Jackson-Wink. But a visit with a friend in Sacramento changed his itinerary.
“I think (Team Alpha Male) was the right thing and that it was meant to be,” he said. “That was the best thing for my career at the time, and even looking back.”
Albuquerque flyweight Ray Borg (9-1), who trains at FIT-NHB, is also on tonight’s card. He’ll face Justin Scoggins (10-2).
MORE ON MEANS: Moriarty UFC welterweight Tim Means told mmafighting.com that his positive test for traces of a banned substance was the result of a tainted sample or a supplement of which the ingredients were not completely listed.
Means, who trains in Albuquerque at FIT-NHB, was pulled from his scheduled Feb. 21 fight against Jackson-Wink’s Donald Cerrone as a result of the out-of-competition drug test.
“I don’t have problems admitting to my issues, and this is not one of my issues,” Means said. “I ingested something accidentally or it’s a botched lab test.”
Speaking Friday on Albuquerque’s KNML-AM, Means said that if the “B” sample of his drug test also comes back positive, he could be facing a suspension of two to four years — an outcome that could end his career.
He reiterated that he has not knowingly ingested a banned substance.
“Am I going to taint everything that I’ve tried to create for myself in the last eight years?” he said. “I’m flabbergasted at the moment at what’s going on.”
BOXING HOF: The New Mexico Boxing Hall of Fame will officially induct its 2015 class tonight at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Las Cruces.
The inductees are Elba Garcia Burke, Danny Montoya, Daniel Perez, Sean McClain, Austin Killeen, Jimmy Archuleta, Mike Ortiz and Art “Golden Boy” Aragon. Ortiz and Aragon are being inducted posthumously.
Charlie Garcia and Olie Wilham will be presented special recognition awards.
Tickets for the banquet are $10 for adults, $5 for children. Call Rocky Burke at 575-639-1381.