Beneil Dariush could have fought Dustin Poirier at UFC 295 two weeks ago.
Dariush is coming off a first-round knockout loss to Charles Oliveira back in June and said he wanted to fight one more time this year. He was then booked to headline UFC Austin on Dec. 2 against Arman Tsarukyan. However, Dariush reveals a few weeks ago he was offered to fight Dustin Poirier on short notice at UFC 295, but it never came to fruition.
“Well, I told them I wanted to fight the end of the year. They were hoping to get me on the October card and I said I would like to do November and they decided on December,” Dariush said to Submission Radio. “That was one thing. Another thing, too, was I actually got a call to fight Dustin Poirier a couple of weeks ago on the UFC 295 card at MSG. They called me for that fight and they said would you be willing and I said yes, of course. My weights good, I’m obviously in camp, I can do a fight with Dustin Poirier and then it didn’t materialize.”
Once the fight didn’t come to fruition, Beneil Dariush put his focus back on his first UFC main event spot against Arman Tsarukyan on Dec. 2.
Beneil Dariush calls Arman Tsarukyan the perfect fight
Although Beneil Dariush is not getting a big name or someone ranked ahead of him, he still is looking forward to this fight. Dairush knows a win won’t do much for him but says this is the perfect opponent for what he wants in his career.
“Losing to Charles was really difficult for me, I’m not one to hide it. It was definitely very difficult, I tried to fix whatever hole I could think of. I’ve revamped my training the best that I can. That’s all I can do in that situation, right? Come back and fight and Lord willing be victorious. I think fighting Arman in a lot of ways doesn’t really do much for me, to be honest with you. For example, if I win, ranking-wise it doesn’t put me ahead, if I lose it definitely pulls me back more,” Dariush said.
“But, at the same time, my goal was never rankings, my goal was to fight the best guys in the world and I believe he’s one of the best guys in the world. So, that’s really it, I don’t think the fight does much for me in terms of the visibility and the exposure and the limelight and rankings. But, for me personally and my career, for what I want, it’s perfect. He’s an amazing fighter and to be able to step in the octagon and do what I do is going to be great,” Dariush concluded.
Dariush enters his UFC Austin fight against Tsarukyan as a +220 underdog.
