This weekend at UFC Vegas 18, Beneil Dariush (19-4-1) and Diego Ferreira (17-2) will battle it out in a rematch from 2014. That night, Dariush became the first man to defeat Ferreira in his professional career. The only other man do beat him is Dustin Poirier.
Dariush will enter the contest having won five fights in a row. He’s currently ranked thirteenth in the UFC‘s lightweight division while Ferreira is coming in at tenth. Should Dariush pickup the win, he will definitely receive another top ten opponent in his next fight.
One of the top ten contenders that Dariush wants to fight is Charles Oliveira (30-8, 1 NC). Oliveira is on an eight-fight win streak and he’s currently ranked third in the UFC’s lightweight division. Oliveira is coming off of a big win against Tony Ferguson in December.
However, Ferguson wasn’t the original opponent for Oliveira in late 2020. Originally, Oliveira was supposed to fight Islam Makhachev at UFC 254. However, Makhachev had to pull out of the fight and that is where Dariush came into the picture.
The UFC ended up booking Oliveira – Dariush for October. Oliveira ended up pulling out of the fight. Once that happened, Dariush was left in limbo waiting for the Oliveira fight to come back together. That is where the frustration stems from in Dariush.
Could Dariush get back to Oliveira in the UFC?
Dariush had an interview with ESPN where he discussed his frustrations. He said, “One thing that really bothered me is that I was hearing he had some problems at home. I said, ‘I get it, I’ll wait, no problem.’ But at the same time, on his social media, this guy is calling out Tony Ferguson.”
We of course know that Oliveira ended up getting the fight at UFC 256 against Ferguson while Dariush remained on the sidelines. Dariush said he felt disrespected by the entire situation.
You have to feel for Dariush in this situation. The UFC called him and asked him to step up to take the Oliveira fight. Of course, he did then he was held out because of it while Oliveira got a massive fight with Tony Ferguson. Dariush has his chance now to make a big statement on Saturday night.