Beneil Dariush aims for quick return against Charles Oliveira, Michael Chandler or Tony Ferguson

UFC lightweight Beneil Dariush insists he isn’t actively hunting fight-night bonuses, despite collecting four such awards in his past five appearances. But with the names he’s looking to face next, another $50,000 could very easily be coming his way.

Following a thrilling decision win over Diego Ferreira at this past weekend’s UFC Fight Night 184, Dariush (20-4-1 MMA, 14-4-1 UFC) likes the idea of facing either Charles Oliveira, Michael Chandler or Tony Ferguson.

“I think Charles, Chandler and Tony, those three guys make the most sense for me,” Dariush told MMA Junkie. “I’ll take any one of those three guys. I think that makes sense for me. I don’t care which one.

“Those guys make sense for me as far as rankings go and everything, and here’s the thing about this division: As soon as I become champ, I’m going to clean this place out. I’m going to clean it out so fast, we’re not going to have this problem anymore in this division, and I’m going to make it real clear. People are going to be like, ‘Oh, dang, we need some new blood in here.’”

To be perfectly clear, Dariush isn’t the kind of fighter to be making callouts of potential opponents. But with a six-fight winning streak to his name, the 31-year-old contender believes he deserves a crack at a few of the names at the top of the division – who are mostly jockeying for fights among themselves at the moment.

After agreeing to a fight with Oliveira this past October, Dariush had to make different plans when “Do Bronx” instead faced Ferguson at December’s UFC 256. That meant a rematch with Ferreira at this past weekend’s event, where Dariush secured a “Fight of the Night” win.

“I don’t know what it was,’ Dariush said. “We got in there, and I was looking to fight kind of similar to what I did with (Scott) Holtzman – I pick my shots, look for the takedown when the time came, kind of look to hold him down – but we had had a couple of exchanges, and then I got a takedown on him, and as soon as I got the takedown on him, he was so hard to hold down. He was so difficult to hold down. He just turned it into a scramble, and he got up, and you know, I had watched video on him. Normally, as soon as someone takes him down, he scrambles and gets back up. First thing he does is he walks you down and starts throwing punches. I said, ‘Man, if I let him walk me down here, I’m going to give up the fight.’ So what did I do? I jumped in there and made sure I walked him down and got more takedowns.

“So that was one of the reasons I did that, but that led it into being just a scrap, man. I watched the fight again, and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, that was really fun to watch,’ and I don’t normally feel like that about my fights.”

Now Dariush is looking to parlay that performance, not to mention his winning streak, into a big fight. With his first child due in June, he’s wanting to fight in April or May and have the bout complete in time for the upcoming birth. He knows any of the three names he’s asking for could prove quite the challenge, but he also thinks it could elevate him on the path to UFC gold.

“It’s going to take for one of these guys to say yes, whether it’s Oliveira, Chandler or Ferguson,” Dariush said. “One of them to say yes, and then I’ll fight one of them, and then I think I’ll be a No. 1 contender. I’ll fight whoever is the champion, and we’ll go from there.”

Lofty goals, to be sure, but Dariush intends to reach them. It’s the title he’s chasing, after all, though he realizes each and every one of those matchups offers the possibility for another “Fight of the Night” effort, whether it’s his priority or not.

“I would have to be more technical and strategic for sure, but at the end of the day, I’m a bit of a dog,” Dariush said. “So if we let it be, it’s going to be a dog fight, and that’s fine with me.”

To see the full interview with Dariush, check out the video below.