Beneil Dariush reveals he was ‘genuinely considering’ Benoit Saint-Denis firework matchup before Dustin Poirier

Beneil Dariush is quite the mainstay in the crowded lightweight weight class. He is coming off a loss to Arman Tsarukyan in the UFC on ESPN 52 headliner. However, the loss does not affect his enthusiasm to climb the contention ladder. As such, he had his sight on two big names: Dustin Poirier and Benoit Saint-Denis.

Recently, Poirier violently finished Saint-Denis at UFC 299. The conclusion of an otherwise fiery clash catapulted Poirier to the status of a potential title contender. Meanwhile, some felt the hype train of Saint-Denis became derailed. Dariush recently revealed he considers the Frenchman an exciting fighter to match up to.

For a minute, they [UFC] called me to fight him [Saint-Denis]...cuz, you know [the contract snafu]...I kind of said 'Hey, listen. I'm kind of banged up but give me a minute...I'll get back to you...' before I got a chance to get back, Dustin said he was back on...but I was genuinely considering it because bro, he is a fun fight...

Beneil Dariush on the JAXXON Podcast

There was a momentary jumpscare from Dustin Poirier, who revealed his fight was off due to a contractual snafu. Ariel Helwani and MMA reporter Guilherme Cruz caught a lot of flak for reporting the matter. Dariush was to sub in; however, Poirier later cleared up the confusion. One big takeaway is that ‘’Benny’ is not afraid to cue in at any situation.

Now that both Saint-Denis and Dariush need to return to the win column, one could book a fight between them both. Both have a similar skill set with wrestling dominant styles. As such, who wouldn’t want them to face off against one another? In the latter half of the year, the UFC Paris fight card remains the best time to book the bout. Only time will tell if the promotion decides to book that fight.

Despite relatively active participation, lightweight mainstay Beneil Dariush doesn’t like rankings

Beneil Dariush is coming off a loss to Arman Tsarukyan. Tsarukyan’s subsequent win pushed him forward to face Charles Oliveira on the historic UFC 300 lineup. Dariush’s mentality of fighting anyone at any time faces a challenge from the UFC corporate system.

‘Benny’ offered to graciously welcome the former champ Conor McGregor as his next opponent. However, he felt the ranking system in the UFC held him back. He reasoned that the UFC matchmaking focuses on rankings and books the fight accordingly. As such, he couldn’t fight whenever he wanted, and the UFC would book his fight based on the rankings. It results in having limited options for opponents.

Speaking to the ESPN 52 Media Day pre-fight scrum, he discussed the offer to fight Dustin Poirier twice. But, ‘Diamond’ had backed out. While he welcomes all forms of challenges thrown his way, he stated that the rankings do limit the opinions of combatants, mandating them to fight at stipulated times.

Currently, Dan Hooker has offered to fight Beneil Dariush during International Fight Week. It remains to be seen whether Dariush accepts the fight to align with his aim to enter the title picture or whether he will accept the fight against the French military veteran Benoit Saint-Denis.

In case you missed it:

• Dan Hooker calls out Beneil Dariush to fight under potential Conor McGregor-headlined card
• “He’s hungrier,” Beneil Dariush debates Arman Tsarukyan poses a greater threat than Dustin Poirier showdown

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