- Beneil Dariush is reflecting hard on his last two first-round KO/TKO defeats
- The 34-year-old revealed what shocked him about Arman Tsarukyan at UFC Austin
Beneil Dariush is on the verge of realizing if he is still one of the top lightweight fighters in the world following another devastating loss.
In the middle of a process
Speaking to Submission Radio, Dariush admitted that that he both suffered a first-round KO/TKO loss in his last two fights. However, the difference is that he knew he didn’t show up against Charles Oliveira and he was confident about being in perfect condition both physically and mentally against Arman Tsarukyan.
“The best way I like to put it is I’m still wrestling with it,” Dariush confided. “… This is the process so this is the step I’m in right now and I haven’t really gone further yet but I’m working on it.”
“I had a really good camp for this fight… Everything I did was like solid… then I got to the fight and I didn’t show up again. So now it goes from is it an issue of not showing up to an issue of maybe I don’t have it anymore so that’s kind of I guess, that’s the difference between this fight and the last fight,” he explained.
“I’ve got to be honest with you guys: Last time I was here, it was maybe 2017 or 2018, I was in back-to-back losses,” Dariush admitted. “And my goal in this game is to be the best that I can be. And I just remember spending a lot of time in prayer and trying to figure out if I was done back then. And I’m kind of in the same spot right now. I’m just trying to figure out like, do I go forward or am I done kind of deal? Because I’m not trying to be like a 50-50 fighter or even a top-10 fighter. I’m trying to be No. 1 in the world. I want to be the best, and I’m not going to settle for anything less than that.”
“So, yeah, I guess just that’s how I deal with it. I go back to prayer and see what the Lord kind of shows me. Last time, I had a lot of issues physically with my neck and just, I said I would solve those issues and then go back into the octagon and see how that goes. And I did that. I had a big change in my performance. I went from being 0-3 to like 8-0. And so, the neck made a big difference. But this time I don’t have any health issues. My neck is pretty good overall. I don’t have any issues with it. So, it’s a different spot I’m in than I was back then,” he continued.
Beneil never knew Arman had a powerful knee
It can be recalled that Tsarukyan’s vicious knee off a Muay Thai clinch finished Dariush at UFC Austin. According to Beneil, he studied “Ahalkalakets” over and over again but he never knew Tsarukyan could throw a knee like that.
“The interesting thing is you know I studied his tapes, I never really saw him throwing knees,” Dariush said. “So, that definitely threw me for a surprise I guess you would say because I watching his fights, he threw a lot of kicks and he would throw elbows from the clinch but I never really saw him throw knees that way like in a Thai style clinch. So, credit to him, definitely changed up his style and it worked.”
The defeat to Tsarukyan saw Dariush having a two-fight slump. He is still expected to be a Top-10 lightweight in the UFC and retirement might be too early to consider. However, Dariush might need a huge comeback win if he still wants to get back to the title contention mix.
