Beneil Dariush had been feeling like the odd man out in the UFC’s lightweight title picture. The veteran was supposed to face Islam Makhachev last year in a bout that would have determined the number one contender in the division.
However, he was forced out of the bout with injury and had to stay on the sidelines for a prolonged amount of time. While he was out, he saw Makhachev get booked to face Charles Oliveira for the vacant title later on this year (vacant because Oliveira missed weight for his most recent title defence).
Later it was announced that Dariush would be facing Mateusz Gamrot. The former KSW champ recently bested Arman Tsarukyan at UFC Vegas 57.
Dariush spoke to MMA Junkie about the fight with the 9th ranked Gamrot. With that outlet Dariush revealed that he had a much different fight in mind.
“We asked the UFC for Dustin Poirier,” he said (ht MMA News). “And it’s not really clear, I don’t know if Dustin turned me down or the UFC never even asked Dustin because I felt a guy like me, let’s be honest. I’m not a superstar, and the scary thing about me is I pretty much eat the star and I don’t become the star. So it’s a bit of a tricky situation. It’s possible they didn’t even ask him. If I could, I’d like to ask Dustin, ‘Hey, did they actually offer you the fight?’”
Dariush added that, if he wasn’t fighting Poirier, he thinks a fight between ‘The Diamond’ and Justin Gaethje would make a lot of sense for the division.
Dariush started in a rich vein of form back in 2018 when he beat Thiago Moises by unanimous decision. Since then he’s won six straight fights.
During that streak he’s beaten Drew Dober, Drakkar Klose and Carlos Diego Ferreira. Last time out, at UFC 262 last year, Dariush beat Tony Ferguson by unanimous decision.
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