Beneil Dariush bounced back from a two fight losing skid to return to the win column against a former UFC lightweight title challenger but it did not come without it’s challenges along the way. After previous losses to Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan, Dariush bested Renato Moicano by way of unanimous decision during their clash at UFC 317 as part of the promotion’s International Fight Week offering this year.
At the UFC 317 post-fight press conference describing to on-site media members the totality of what was happening in his head and heart in that moment, Dariush said,
“I’m feeling fine—frustrated. I’ve already said it—frustrated—so I’ll try to stop saying it, but I feel fine. I just keep replaying that first round in my head and it just makes me more angry.”
“It’s frustrating because you don’t follow the game plan that you set. You lose the round because of it, and then you go into round two now you’re just so mad you’re not even thinking about game plans anymore. You’re just thinking about finding a way to win. The more I play it over in my head, it’s better if I internalize it instead of externalizing it because it just doesn’t sound good when I speak.”
Dariush continued, “He was doing a lot of fakes and he’s very sneaky with his hands. I kind of stopped respecting him maybe in the first round—I don’t know what I did, but he caught me with a straight down the middle. That’s something I should be aware of, and he still caught me. Definitely impressed with his performance. I had to dig deeper, but that’s okay. I’m perfectly fine with digging deeper.”
Beneil Dariush and his first round frustrations
Beneil Dariush referenced that opening stanza with Renato Moicano multiple times while speaking with assembled media and all of the judges gave that round to the Brazilian. A straight right down the middle put Dariush down to the canvas with Moicano hastily crowding to work toward the finish but Dariush showed great composure through the remainder of that fight with 29-28 scores across the board in his favor when all was said and done.
