Joseph Benavidez stands just over 5 foot 4, and 135 pounds, which for some seems like an adolescent youths size.  His 66 inch reach doesn’t help much to his advantage either.

Odds are against Benavidez who stands small to the lanky physique of the Former WEC Champion Miguel Torres.  However Benavidez is unconcerned with the challenges Torres’ reach and height.  In fact, Benavidez is more then comfortable, and quite used to the differences in his fights.

“Everybody that I practice with or fight usually has the reach on me, so that’s just a way of life for me – just getting past someone’s reach,” Benavidez said in a recent media call promoting the event. “That’s just my style of fighting.”

Benavidez, who was once considering a drop to 125 if the WEC institute the division, is slowly adding muscle to his frame.  He’s been familiarizing himself with reach advantage in both training and fighting.

“He does have an extremely long reach, and the only thing that I’ve really done different that I probably actually would have never done before is I actually sought out some boxers that were the same height and same reach – Mexican-style, a few amateurs and a few pros,” Benavidez said. “Just trying to go with as many tall guys as I can. That’s the most I can do is just try to get people in there to mimic him with their height. It worked out pretty good, and I’m feeling good against tall people like that.”

But there’s also another discrepancy that’s shadowing this fight.  Most attention has been towards Torres and his eventual rematch against Bowles who only a few months ago stripped Torres of his belt.  Benavidez is taking it all in strides, not looking past the fight, and understands he’s the underdog in this fight.

“People are going to be excited to see him come back and want to talk to him more. I’ve got to pave my way just like everyone else did and get people excited about watching me fight. He was a world champion, so that’s expected.”

Joseph Benavidez and Miguel Torres are set to face each other this Saturday March 6^th, on Versus.