Last night, Dana White announced the UFC 311 main and co-main events. The first PPV of 2025 is stacking up to be a massive card the hits just keep on coming. Today, the promotion announced that a lightweight matchup between ninth ranked Beneil Dariush (22-5-1) and tenth ranked Renato Moicano (20-5-1) will also take place on the January 18th card from LA.
Starting with “Money” Moicano, he’s been on an incredible run recently. Back in March 2022, Moicano took a short-notice fight against Rafael Dos Anjos and was dominated over five rounds. However, since then, he’s been perfect. Moicano has gone 4-0 with three finishes. Most recently, he dominated Benoit Saint-Denis in the main event of UFC Paris back in September. He also won that fight while dealing with a shoulder injury.
UFC 311
Standing across from Moicano on January 18th will be Beneil Dariush. Between November 2018 and October 2022, Beneil Dariush went a perfect 8-0 in the UFC’s lightweight division. During that stretch he defeated the likes of Tony Ferguson and Mateusz Gamrot.
That win streak led him to a matchup against Charles Oliveira last June. While Dariush was the betting favorite against the former champion, he was stopped in the first round. His next matchup came against the man who will be fighting for the lightweight title in the main event of UFC 311, Arman Tsarukyan. Unfortunately for Dariush, he was stopped in the first round of that fight as well.
This fight is big for both men. For Dariush, he needs desperately to get back in the win column. For Moicano, he needs another big win like this to continue climbing the ranks towards title contention.