Beneil Dariush is targeting a fight with Charles Oliveira next.
Dariush is coming off an impressive unanimous decision victory over Carlos Diego Ferreira at UFC Vegas 18 earlier this month.
The win put him on a six-fight winning streak and in his post-fight interview, Dariush proceeded to call out the top 10 of the lightweight division as he criticized them for turning down fights and viewing him as high-risk, low reward.
Now that he’s ranked No. 10, Dariush is only looking towards the top of the rankings — and the No. 3-ranked Oliveira is at the top of his wishlist.
“Listen, the guy comes out and throws a bunch of flying knees, a bunch of kicks, a bunch of weird stuff, and you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to walk through all of it,” Dariush told ESPN (via Middle Easy). “I don’t know how, but I’m going to walk through all of it.
“I’m going to grab him, he’s going to think he’s going to take me down. He’s not, I’m going to take him down. He’s going to try submissions, they’re not going to work and it’s just going to be a dog fight until one dog gives up and I’m pretty sure that’s not going to be me.”
Of course, it would make more sense for Dariush to fight someone ranked No. 5 or below first, but that just goes along with his criticism of today’s ranked fighters.
After all, he’s fought unranked fighters even when he was previously ranked in the top 10.
“Bro, I thought we were fighters,” Dariush added. “Why is everybody so civilized all of a sudden and why is everybody like, low risk high reward. I feel like I’m working with businessmen. When I was ranked number seven… they offered me (Michael) Chiesa who wasn’t ranked, and I said sure. I lost the fight, which sucks, but I lost.
“Then right after that fight, I fought James Vick. I took it on short notice just because I didn’t feel good about myself, I jumped back in. At the time he had never been knocked out, he was 5-0 in the UFC. I was still ranked, I was ranked top ten, I took the fight with him not ranked, still went out there…
“It’s like, they call you to fight. Isn’t that what you signed up for, to fight? Just say yes.”
In reality, a fight with Oliveira seems highly unlikely at this point especially as the Brazilian has designs on fighting for the seemingly vacant title next.
That’s if he gets the shot in the first place.
What do you think of an Oliveira vs. Dariush fight? Do you think Oliveira should fight him like Dariush says?