Beneil Dariush is somewhat open to fighting Mauricio Ruffy after his viral knockout at UFC 313.
The UFC’s ‘Fighting Nerds’ are quickly taking over 2025 with Mauricio Ruffy and his teammate Jean Silva scoring style points en route to first-round finishes. Nicknamed ‘One Shot’, that’s all it took for Ruffy to shut the lights off for 50-fight veteran King Green on Saturday night.
Ruffy landed a flush spinning heel kick on Green, sending him face-down to the canvas inside the opening round. Three months into 2025, many fans are calling Ruffy’s highlight the ‘KO of the year’.
UFC commentator Daniel Cormier would go as far as saying it was one of the best knockouts of all time.
Mauricio Ruffy calls his shot post UFC 313
Closed mouths don’t get fed with the 28-year-old Ruffy already calling for five rounds against a seasoned top-10 contender in Beneil Dariush.
“Mauricio Ruffy vs. Beneil Dariush, a ‘Fight Night’ main event… what do you think?” Ruffy said in Portuguese during his post-fight interview.
Holding on to the #9 ranking in the lightweight division, Dariush is no stranger to call-outs, hearing more of them as of late since he is coming off of back-to-back losses. Granted, those defeats were against the top two contenders in Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan.
Beneil Dariush responds to UFC 313 call-out
Watching UFC 313 from the sidelines, Dariush says he’s ultimately impressed with what he saw out of Ruffy.
“I was talking to my friends, I was like, man, I’m pretty sure he is gonna finish him in the first round,” Dariush told Submission Radio. “Then, he finished them like that… I was like, man, it was even more impressive than what I was expecting.
“I would say overall I was very impressed with the guy.”
Dariush continued, regarding the likelihood of a fight between him and the exciting Brazilian standout.
“As far as the call-out goes like, man, you could call out whoever you want. I don’t really care. It’s like Dana [White], Sean Shelby, and Hunter [Campbell]… It depends on who they want me to fight, right?
“That’s kind of where I’m at right now. There was a period where I fought a guys a lot outside of the rankings and it didn’t really move me that much forward. So at this point, I want the fights that are gonna get me to the title the quickest. So that’s really what I’m waiting for is to get that call and be like, okay, you’re fighting this guy, you’re fighting that guy who is ranked. That’s the ideal situation.”
During his 8-fight win streak in the lightweight division, Dariush fought a handful of unranked opponents, moving on up in the rankings but no title opportunity unfortunately.
At 35, Dariush is still set on capturing Islam Makhachev’s lightweight title, willing to do whatever it takes to finally get there.
“If they call me to fight him, then so be it. Then we’re fighting him,” Dariush said of a potential fight with Ruffy.
Dariush was initially scheduled to return earlier this year at UFC 311 against Renato Moicano, however the matchup was cancelled due to Moicano stepping in as a short-notice replacement to fight the champion Makhachev.