Beneil Dariush delivered another strong performance at UFC 280, defeating Mateusz Gamrot by unanimous decision to extend his current winning streak to eight fights, and now he’s targeted three new potential opponents for his next Octagon outing.
Having gone unbeaten for the last four years it’s understandable that the No.4 ranked Dariush had ideally hoped to be fighting for the title next time out, but with that option seemingly ruled out due to newly crowned champion Israel Adesanya being expected to face long-time featherweight kingpin Alexander Volkanovski next, he’s turned his sights to three other leading contenders.
“I guess right now my options are the winner of Dustin Poirier (and Michael Chandler), Charles (Oliveira), or (Rafael) Fiziev,” Dariush told Morning Kombat. “Those are the three options. … Those are great fights, so let’s just figure this out and move forward.”
Rather than being overly concerned with which one he ends up facing, Dariush is instead just keeping his fingers crossed that he’s not kept waiting too long before he gets to fight again.
“I don’t want to sit out for another eight months, nine months, a year-and-a-half,” Dariush said. “I love fighting. I just want to fight. You’re not gonna be able to dangle the belt in front of me. The belt doesn’t make me feel special. I know who I am, I know what I’m worth, and I know what God has put me on this earth to do. So, the belt is cool, I’d love to get it, but ideally I just want to make sure I don’t waste my talents, so I want to get back in there as soon as I can.”
