Joseph Benavidez was always the bridesmaid, even until the very end. Benavidez is one of the most successful lower-weight mixed martial artists of all time, but retired last week having never won a world title. Benavidez spent over 10 years ranked among the top five 125-pound fighters in the world, but there was always one guy better than him. Five of his eight career losses were in world title fights – one in the WEC, four in the UFC – and six were shared between just three men.

First it was Dominick Cruz, who beat Benavidez twice in the WEC, including once for the promotion’s bantamweight title. Then, it was the great Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, who beat Benavidez twice for the UFC flyweight title. And at the end it was Deiveson Figueiredo, who brutalized Benavidez twice last year in championship bouts en route to winning Fighter of the Year. There was always just one guy overshadowing Benavidez, always just one guy a bit better.

And then, when Benavidez announced his retirement last week, bringing an end to one of the most successful MMA careers of the last decade, he was immediately overshadowed again – by the retirement, just days later, of a much bigger and more beloved star in Carlos Condit.

Fighting is a hard sport, one that destroys the bodies and minds of even those who do it the best. That first title fight with Cruz took place in August 2010 – the last with Figueiredo in July 2020. The fact that he maintained his status as one of the world’s elite for that long is an amazing accomplishment. And even though he never had the good fortune to wrap a big gold belt around his waist, that makes him no less of one of the all-time greats.

When putting together the list of the greatest flyweights of all time, Benavidez has to be considered within the top five, for his longevity as much as his skills. 125, where Benavidez thrived from the moment the division was added to the UFC in 2012, is the fastest division in men’s MMA. It’s almost always been a domain of younger fighters. Benavidez succeeding at such a high level well into his late 30s is a marvel – at the moment he retired, the flyweight rankings consisted of almost entirely fighters in their 20s and then Benavidez, more than 10 years older than many of the fighters on the list.

Benavidez did it by keeping himself in marvelous shape throughout his MMA career: the Benavidez of 2019 looked the same as the Benavidez of 2010. He was also very powerful for his size and boasted an impressive killer instinct, a combination that pushed him to wins over the likes of Henry Cejudo, Jussier Formiga, Alex Perez and Ali Bagautinov.

But fighting is a young man’s game, especially at flyweight. And with Johnson fighting in ONE, Cejudo retired, Kyoji Horiguchi fighting in Bellator and RIZIN, Formiga out of the UFC, and other former stars like Ian McCall, John Dodson and Dustin Ortiz having faded away, Benavidez’s retirement means that the entire first group of flyweight stars in UFC history have moved on.

We almost lost the flyweight division itself entirely, but Figueiredo and new champion Brandon Moreno, along with the rest of the division’s young talent, have resulted in its rebirth. But as we prepare for the exciting future of 125-pound mixed martial arts, take a moment to pay respect to one of the all-time greats, champion or not.