Beneil Dariush had a rough 2023.
After winning eight straight fights in one of the promotion’s deepest divisions, the No. 7-ranked lightweight contender suffered back-to-back losses to Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan and has yet to make an appearance in 2024.
Blame lingering knee issues.
“Before summer, I would say around, like March. April started, like, really picking it up. And then my knee was bothering me, and it was just weird at first. It was a little bit painful. And then it started locking, and I’ve had a torn meniscus for a long time, but it never was an issue,” Dariush told Submission Radio. “I’ve been able to train and do whatever I wanted with it. So went back in there like, yeah, it’s just it’s a meniscus, basically. I tried to go the physical therapy route and it’s improved quite a bit. I’ve tried the whole PRP, all that stuff, and I’m able to train to somewhat, but if I pick it up and train a lot, it it will lock up. Or if not during my training, it’ll lock up after my training once the muscles are all relaxed. So it’s still kind of giving me a problem, and it’s stressing me out.”
That’s probably why Dan Hooker moved on from this gory goal.
“If I go into a camp like this, it’s not an ideal situation,” Dariush continued. “So I’ve been trying to get some doctors appointments, see what what we can do, because I’ve heard if you can just shave it, it’s instant. Like you can just get back into training right away, which is ideal, but it just depends on the tear, too. Not all tears are the same. And if it’s not the ideal tear, I would have to do a repair. And that takes like six months to come back. So I would probably just skip the repair and maybe possibly remove the meniscus. So that way removing the meniscus will give you issues later on in life, but at least I’ll get to finish. I get to fight sooner.”
Preferable someplace with low taxes.
“If they let me do a scope, when I can come back within a couple weeks to training, I’ll be back by the end of the year. So that’s really it,” Dariush said. “I just have to make sure the meniscus damage, the tear is in a way where I can get a what they call a shave. The surgery, they shave the meniscus, and I could do that, but if I have to sew it, then I have to think about it. Do I just keep doing it as I’m doing and strengthen the leg and then go fight? That’s kind of my direction or the final option is just take the thing out.”
Dariush (22-6-1) turned 35 back in May.