Beneil Dariush wants to fight the best competition in the world and get paid to do it.
So when he initially saw that his upcoming fight against Benoit Saint Denis was supposed to be the featured prelim
at UFC 322, he effectively shrugged his shoulders and moved on with his day. The same goes for the updated bout order when Dariush suddenly found himself back on the main card again with the fight between Bo Nickal and Rodolfo Vieira now serving as the featured prelim.
While there were definitely some heated reactions to the initial plans for UFC 322 that had Dariush vs. Saint Denis on the prelims, the 36-year-old lightweight veteran wasn’t one of them.
“I didn’t think much about it,” Dariush told MMA Fighting. “I’ll be honest with you, Rodolfo Vieira was a guy when I was a purple belt/brown belt who was dominating in the jiu-jitsu scene. For me, I look at him as someone way ahead of me as far as grappling. He’s got such a big career. When I look at Bo Nickal, I’m a huge fan of wrestling. I watch a lot of wrestling, I like to study it. Bo definitely stood out in wrestling. He was very special, especially having a different style compared to everybody else. For me, it was like I get it, these guys are awesome. It makes sense that you would have them on the main card.
“But then they put me back up there, I also appreciate that from the UFC. To recognize me and the years I’ve put in and to recognize it. I’m grateful for it but I wouldn’t have complained if they put those guys ahead of me.”
Dariush’s overwhelmingly sensible approach to his placement on the card really came down to the honest truth about what the main card means versus the prelims.
While some fighters view the bout order as a status symbol, especially when it comes to the bigger marquee pay-per-view events, Dariush just never let that consume him much. In fact, Dariush admits the only way he would probably get incredibly happy or visibly upset about his placement on any card comes down to his paycheck at the end of the night.
“It’s not like I get paid more to be on the main card,” Dariush said. “That’s why, if there was a financial incentive, maybe then I would be like OK, that doesn’t make sense, I should be there. But there’s no financial incentive for me so I just figured whatever. I’ll fight 30 minutes earlier. That’s it.”
As much as he didn’t care about his place in the UFC 322 pecking order, Dariush appreciates that so many fans reacted with outrage that his fight against Saint Denis was seemingly being slighted.
Based on rankings and overall experience in the UFC, Dariush and Saint Denis definitely deserved the more marquee spot on the main card. But Dariush clearly wasn’t all that concerned, although he loves that the fans took up for him.
“One thing I’ll say not being super present on social media, the fans have been very good to me,” Dariush said. “Over the years, I realize even though I haven’t done the best as far as fan interactions, the fans have been very good to me. So I was very grateful. I’m very grateful for that.
“Very grateful to the fans that they would do that and excited to go out there and prove them right. Show them why we should be on the main card and that will be my thank you to the fans.”
When it comes to his matchup on Saturday, Dariush was mostly just excited to get back to work after he stopped a two-fight skid with an impressive showing to beat Renato Moicano in June.
Prior to that victory, Dariush was admittedly questioning how much time he might have left in the sport after his title fight hopes were dashed with consecutive losses to Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsraukyan.
“I was genuinely considering if I don’t have it, I’m going to move on,” Dariush revealed. “I’m not going to keep doing this. Getting out there, even though it wasn’t my best performance, I didn’t love everything I did, I was still really happy to get the ‘W.’
“Honestly to just be able to have some adversity and be able to persevere through that, I think that was very important for me. So overall it was a perfect fight.”
Now he gets the fight against Saint Denis, who is riding a two-fight win streak after he also endured back-to-back losses in the UFC.
While this is technically facing off with a lower ranked opponent, Dariush didn’t hesitate to accept the fight because he wanted to stay busy and passing on this opportunity could have forced him to sit out until 2026.
“I wanted a Dan Hooker fight but they basically said he was not available and then I found out he was fighting Arman [Tsarukyan],” Dariush said.
“That’s all I ask for to fight the best guys in the world. There was a possibility of a [Mateusz] Gamrot rematch and to be honest, it didn’t really excite me to go and fight Gamrot again. I basically said I’ve already done that fight, I’d prefer to fight somebody else. Then he ended up getting the fight with Charles Oliveira so it wouldn’t have happened anyway.”
In the end, Dariush took the fight with Saint Denis and he’s ready to pick up another win, kick off the UFC 322 main card in style and hopefully entertain the fans inside Madison Square Garden.
“I’m stoked for this fight,” Dariush said. “I’m stoked to show the world I’m continuing to improve and come Nov. 15, they’re going to see something special.”
