Beneil Dariush was just one victory away from a 155-pound title shot.
The longtime lightweight veteran captured eight straight wins in the promotion’s deepest division and found himself sitting in the Top 5 in the official rankings. Then came a technical knockout loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC 289, followed by a first-round knockout defeat to Arman Tsarukyan at UFC Austin, and it all came crashing down.
That doesn’t include the damage Dariush took in the gym.
“Benny had a very rough year last year,” head coach Rafael Cordeiro told MMA Fighting. “He had two knockouts and three knockdowns. He was knocked down twice and knocked out once in the gym, and then fought Charles and was TKO’d. He fought Arman next and was knocked out. He had five situations during the year where his head was hurt. He’s a young kid, and it was a request I made for him to take some time.”
With both Justin Gaethje and Charles Oliveira losing at UFC 300 and Dustin Poirier fighting Islam Makhachev at UFC 302, the No. 6-ranked Dariush, who turns 35 in just a few days, could very easily find himself back in the lightweight title chase with a couple of big wins. He’s also not short on callouts, though a return date has yet to be determined.
“I don’t worry as a coach, I worry as a father. I have him as my kid and I don’t need to put him to real test for nothing right now,” Cordeiro continued. “Benny won eight and lost two of his last 10 fights and some people want him to retire. That’s absurd. It’s disrespectful with his story, but since we can’t listen to noise or things we can’t control, we’ll focus on his health. Let’s see the fights that make sense for him for the moment he’s physically recovered. I’m not talking about confidence. He has confidence. It’s more of a neurological thing. I want him to worry about it for a moment because he was hit a lot.”
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