UFC lightweight Beneil Dariush has grown frustrated with the negotiations involved in landing a fight against a top-ranked opponent.
At UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs. Volkov earlier this month, Beneil Dariush defeated Carlos Diego Ferreira to crack into the lightweight top 10. After the fight, Dariush vented about the matchmaking due to his belief that both he and Ferreira were deserving of a fighter higher up in the rankings.
It originally seemed that Beneil Dariush’s gripe was with the matchmakers, but he later clarified that it was the fighters at the top of the division who needed to step up and accept the fight against him. It’s not that Dariush did not consider Ferreira to be a worthy opponent; the problem lies in the negotiation practices of other fighters that created the fight in the first place.
“I thought we were fighters,” Dariush said in an interview with ESPN released Tuesday. “Why is everybody so civilized all of a sudden? And why is everybody like low risk, high reward, whatever? It’s like, man, I feel like I’m working with businessmen…
“They call you to fight. Isn’t this what you signed up for? Say yes,” Dariush concluded.
For his next fight, Beneil Dariush hopes that it will be either Tony Ferguson, Michael Chandler, or Charles Oliveira who says yes. But first, there will need to be an offer on the table, one that Dariush hopes the UFC makes and that he feels he has earned with his six-fight winning streak. The only realistic option on his list may be the skidding Tony Ferguson, as Charles Oliveira seems to be fixated on a title shot and Michael Chandler appears to be on the doorstep of a clear title-eliminator fight.
Who would you like to see Beneil Dariush fight next?
