‘The UFC Did Give Me Their Word’

Beneil Dariush has finally been guaranteed a spot as the No. 1 lightweight contender … if he can beat Charles Oliveira at UFC 289.

Beneil Dariush is currently on an eight fight win streak in the UFC, which is the second longest active lightweight streak after champion Islam Makhachev. Yet “Benny” continues to have a hard time even getting included in title fight discussions. What gives?

A big part of it has to do with how exciting the lightweight division is. When you have blood and guts guys like Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje out there engaging in violent slugfests, it can be difficult for a relatively understated fellow like Dariush to break through to the common fan. So over time, Beneil accepted that he’d have to work twice as hard and win twice as much to earn a title shot.

Now Dariush has declared he’s one win away from a shot at the belt. All he has to do is get past Charles Oliveira in the co-main event of UFC 289 and he’s a lock. That’s what the UFC has reportedly told him, and he says they’re normally pretty slippery about promising anything.

“Fortunately, the UFC did give me their word, which is not usual for them,” Dariush told Submission Radio in a new interview. “I’ve asked, I think after the Tony [Ferguson] fight, I thought maybe they would. And I said, no problem. After the [Mateusz] Gamrot fight, before the Gamrot fight, I asked, ‘hey, if I win this fight, I get the title shot, right?’ And I think it was Sean [Shelby], and Sean gave me this spiel like, ‘Well, we don’t know what tomorrow brings. What if Khabib comes back? Or what if Volkanovski wants to fight?’ And there you go, Volkanovski did fight.’

“So yeah, they didn’t gimme that spiel. They said, ‘yeah, you’re the number one contender.’”

Beating Oliveira won’t be an easy task. “Do Bronx” had his own wild 12 fight win streak going before Islam Makhachev took him out with an arm triangle choke back in November 2022. Dariush clearly sees this as a sign of where he should take the fight, as he believes he outgrapples Oliveira nearly every day of the week.

“I started out in grappling,” Dariush said. “I was a young grappler and I was coming up in the ranks, and Charles Oliveira, I had never even heard of him in grappling. I first noticed him in MMA. But in terms of grappling, I think if we competed, either 10 out of 10 or 9 out of 10 times, I’d beat him in grappling. I think he’s very good at grappling, but we wouldn’t be in the same ballpark.”

“I mean, yeah, of course I’m gonna show it. There’s no fight with Charles Oliveira where grappling doesn’t take place, and I think somewhat with me as well. So, of course I’m gonna grab him and then we’re gonna know what life’s all about.”

UFC 289 goes down on Saturday June 10th from Vancouver, BC in Canada and is headlined by a women’s bantamweight bout between champion Amanda Nunes and Irene Aldana. Click here for all the latest news on the UFC’s next pay-per-view event.