Is Baniel Dariush, not Diego Ferreira, the real dark horse of the lightweights?
A thing to remember about dark horses is nobody expects them to win or do well. Dark horses do not have hype and Diego Ferriera had a lot of hype behind him. Re watching his fight with Ramsey Nijem, his only loss, Dariush was doing well, until he got overconfident and threw a flying knee and paid for it. When Diego fought Nijem, he was losing the stand up battle until Nijem started over extending himself. Dariush’s fight this weekend was much more calculated. His jab was on point, and so was his ju jtisu defense. Ferrierra was never close to finishing one of those leg locks. His leg kicks as soon as Diego switched stances showed a very focused fighter with great awareness. He may have been a little hesitant to pull the trigger but that is understandable considering the loss to Nijem. He didn’t coast to a decision, he simply shut Diego down in every department, the striking, the ground, and the clinch. What I took away from this fight is that Dariush is still learning and learning fast. He may have some innate talent but he doesn’t rely on it and is still improving. He could have a good year with a big fight to finish 2015 if Joe Silva doesn’t feed him more than he can chew.
