2. Joseph Benavidez
Sherdog's fifth greatest flyweight ever makes his second list, with a silver medal finish. Perhaps fittingly given his career, Benavidez was as close to No. 1 as any other fighter on any top 10 list in this series. He and the No. 1 choice received an identical number of first-place votes, with only a few points separating them. A superlative grappler with outstanding wrestling and BJJ, Benavidez also developed fantastic striking, based around his aggressive boxing, charging forward with a series of huge power punches. He also had excellent cardio and intelligence, winning numerous battles against other greats, but never quite being able to overcome some of the greatest legends MMA has ever seen. By the time that the WEC merged with the UFC, Benavidez had already fought twice for a title as a very undersized bantamweight against the legendary Dominick Cruz, coming up short on the scorecards both times. Benavidez began his UFC career at bantamweight, going 2-0, including a decision over Eddie Wineland. He then dropped to 125 pounds and found immediate success, knocking out former Shooto champion Yasuhiro Urushitani.
This gave Benavidez a matchup with Demetrious Johnson for the inaugural UFC flyweight championship. He came closer than he ever had—or ever would—but still lost a split decision. Benavidez promptly rattled off three more wins, including a decision against Ian McCall and knockout of Jussier Formiga, and challenged Johnson again. Unfortunately, this attempt went worse, as the reigning champion knocked out Benavidez in less than half a round, the first time he had been stopped. Once again, Benavidez was undeterred and went right back to winning. He would go an amazing 9-1 from 2014 to 2019 against superlative competition. This included a submission of Tim Elliott, two decisions over Dustin Ortiz, judges' verdicts over John Moraga, Ali Bagautinov and Zack Makovsky, another knockout of Formiga, a brutal first-round stoppage of Alex Perez and a split decision over Henry Cejudo which honestly could have gone to either man or even been a draw. Benavidez’s lone setback during that run was a split decision loss to future Bellator bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis. Benavidez had once more earned a title shot and was the favorite against Deiveson Figueiredo, who had recently lost to Formiga. Alas, the Brazilian scored a devastating knockout against Benavidez. However, since Figueiredo had missed weight, Benavidez got another chance, an unprecedented fifth title shot and third in the UFC. Unfortunately, at almost 36 years old, Benavidez was well past his prime, and Figueiredo defeated him with ease, choking him out at the end of the first stanza. After dropping a decision to Askar Askarov, another outstanding flyweight the UFC inexplicably let go, Benavidez retired, a legendary career that never attained gold.
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