Beneil Dariush’s UFC lightweight title shot keeps getting delayed, and it’s starting to get on his nerves.
The top 155-pound contender’s pivotal clash with former champion Charles Oliveira (33-9 MMA, 21-9 UFC) at UFC 288 was scrapped after Oliveira withdrew from the May 6 bout because of injury
Dariush (22-4-1 MMA, 16-4-1 UFC) suggested to the UFC that he should get the next shot at lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, but the promotion’s response almost made Dariush lose his mind.
“I was actually pretty upset at that time,” Dariush told The Schmo. “I took a minute and kind of calmed down. So I go in and I basically say to them, ‘Hey, if that’s the case, if he’s not available, let me fight Makhachev in, let’s say, July or August?’ But they’re like, ‘No, we have to save Makhachev for October for the Abu Dhabi card.’ I don’t really wanna wait until October, but I still wanna fight for the belt. So I say, ‘OK, why don’t I get him in October then?’
“Basically, the way they put it is like – I’m not the No. 1 contender is the way they put it. They said there’s people ahead of me, and they specifically pointed out Dustin Poirier. At that point, I was about to flip a table. I was about to take Justin Gaethje’s advice. You know he said, ‘If Dariush doesn’t get the title shot, we riot.’ I was very close to that.”
The UFC is still keen to rebook Dariush against Oliveira, and because Dariush wants to stay active, the idea is OK by him.
“The thing that brought me back was thinking, ‘I don’t wanna wait until October to fight anyway,” Dariush said. “I like fighting.”
Dariush said the plan is to have his fight with Oliveira rescheduled for UFC 289 on June 10 in Vancouver, but nothing has been finalized. And if his fight with Oliveira gets scrapped again, Dariush asked for some kind of insurance.
“They said they want to push the fight to June 10,” Dariush said. “I still don’t have a contract, so I’m not sure if it’s for sure, but that’s what they told me they want to do, June 10. At first, I wasn’t about it because what if this guy pulls out? But then I said a couple of things: If this guy pulls out again, I want the title shot. And basically a pay bump, too. They agreed to both things, and that was pretty much it.
“They agreed to those two things, so if he pulls out, I do get the title shot. That’s what I was told. It’s hard to say no to that, because it seems to me the UFC, on their part, is doing everything to make this fight happen. So I said yeah, let’s do it, let’s do June 10. I agreed to June 10, and I got some kind of insurance just in case he pulls out.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 288.
