Plotting his first siege at undisputed lightweight gold in October with a victory over former gold holder, Charles Oliveira at UFC 289 this weekend, surging division contender, Beneil Dariush has scoffed at the possibility of defending spoils against Dustin Poirier, claiming the Lafayette native has avoided a fight with him.
Dariush, who has won seven straight, puts his undefeated streak on the line this weekend in the co-maine event of UFC 289 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – drawing the current #1 ranked contender, Oliveira in a championship-eliminator.
In the night’s headliner, two-weight champion, Amanda Nunes defends her undisputed bantamweight title against Mexican challenger, Irene Aldana in the promotion’s return to ‘The Great White North’.
Sidelined since featuring on the main card of UFC 280 last October, Dariush featured against former two-weight KSW champion, Mateusz Gamrot, landing a one-sided unanimous decision victory against the Polish contender.
Beneil Dariush distances himself from fight with Dustin Poirier
Weighing up a future title fight with current division gold holder, Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 in October, Dariush – who will battle for contention against both Poirier and Justin Gaethje who are set to rematch at UFC 291 next month, has little interest in a title fight – should he strike gold against the Louisana striker.
“Shoot, I haven’t hought about it, to be honest with you,” Beneil Dariush told Submission Radio of a future fight with Dustin Poirier. “If he wins, do we really need to fight? I mean, he’s not interested, right? He doesn’t really wanna fight me. So, yeah, I mean, he’ll be the bMF champion, maybe he’ll go on and defend that belt and I’ll fight somebody else.”
“I don’t know,” Beneil Dariush explained. “We’ll see what the UFC says. But if he’s not pushing to fight me if I’m the champion, then at this point I’m just – I’m over it. You know. I really do wanna fight the next generation, these young contenders. But if it’s Dustin Poirier, it’s Dustin Poirier.”