Following UFC 262 last Saturday, Beneil Dariush issued a surprise callout to Tesla CEO, Elon Musk — questioning where the vehicle he had ordered is, and why it was taking so long for him to receive it. Fast forward to Tuesday night, and Dariush is now sat in front of a free rented Tesla provided by Musk himself, while he waits for the finishing touches to be put on his ordered vehicle.
Turning in arguably the most high-profile victory of his professional career to date, Dariush took co-headlining status at the Toyota Centre event in Houston, Texas. Matching with former interim lightweight champion, Tony Ferguson, Dariush managed to nab a 30-27 clean sweep unanimous decision victory across all three judge’s scorecards.
With the victory, Dariush took home his whopping seventh consecutive victory as lightweight as his rich vein of form continues. The victory over Ferguson, as one-sided as it was, managed to propel the Kings MMA staple from the #9 rank in the official UFC rankings, all the way up to #3, just behind former interim titleholders, Justin Gaethje and upcoming UFC 264 headliner, Dustin Poirier.
Issuing his tongue-in-cheek callout to Musk, Dariush questioned the status of his ordered car and why it kept being delayed despite the fact he had placed the order at the beginning of the year — to which Musk replied on social media, “coming soon“.
Posting on his official Twitter account last night, Dariush’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz snapped a picture of his client sat in front of a Tesla, claiming that Musk had provided a free rental to the Iranian born grappler while he waits on his ordered vehicle to arrive.
“@elonmusk came through for @beneildariush with a free car until his order is ready,” Abdelaziz tweeted. “Elon (Musk) is a gangster @ufc.“
In what transpired to be quite the fruitful week for Dariush both inside and out of the Octagon, the 32-year-old, who is set to take some time off as he and his wife welcome a newborn this summer, has speculated that he could earn shot against recently minted lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira — ahead of the above-mentioned, Poirier and former two-weight champion, Conor McGregor.
“I think I (have) a real case for the title,” Dariush explained. “In business numbers, that’s the fight that’s going to get the title shot. But here’s the thing: I’m the only guy with an actual streak in the division. That’s one thing. I have the longest streak in the top three right now. The other thing is these guys don’t get their contracts figured out that quickly. These guys, they’ll fight — I’ve seen contracts fall apart with Dustin (Poirier) and Conor (McGregor). Things have not worked out for them. So, I’m sitting here and I’m ready to go.“