Beneil Dariush has endured a very strange start to his fight calendar in 2026.<\/p>\n
Originally scheduled to return to action in February, Dariush was expected to face rising lightweight star Manuel Torres but the fight was hit with multiple delays. The final destination was booked for UFC 327 but then Dariush got word that Torres was out of the fight with no replacement in sight.<\/p>\n
Instead, the UFC offered Dariush a round-trip ticket to Perth, Australia and a showdown against another top prospect in Quillan Salkilld, who has started his career with the promotion with a perfect 4-0 record including three knockouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wanted to fight in Miami, obviously,\u201d Dariush told MMA Fighting. \u201cI was in camp for a while. I was actually in camp even before that. I was supposed to fight Feb. 28 originally and they told me March 7 and then they moved it to April 11 and then finally they said he\u2019s injured, he can\u2019t make it. I\u2019m assuming he was pushing it back hoping that he could fight but his injury didn\u2019t let him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now it\u2019s May 2. It\u2019s been a long, long camp. As much as I wanted to fight on April 11, I do love Australia and I always wanted to fight here so I said yes to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dariush enters the fight at a very interesting stage in his career.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been a perennial top 15 ranked lightweight for several years but his path to a title shot was stunted with back-to-back knockout losses to Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan. Dariush got back on track with an impressive win over Renato Moicano but then his momentum stopped again after he suffered a brutal 16-second knockout loss to Benoit Saint Denis that had him contemplating a change in weight classes.<\/p>\n
Dariush teased his interest in moving to welterweight after he failed to hit the lightweight limit for the Saint Denis fight and he was also convinced he just couldn\u2019t take punches anymore after such a rigorous weight cut. But a trip to the UFC Performance Institute helped Dariush understand that his concerns were mostly unfounded and he got the help he needed to ensure he\u2019d make weight for his next fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was all in my head,\u201d Dariush said. \u201cWhen I spoke Charles [Stull], who was helping me with my weight, he explained the issues that I was having and how we can address those issues. As soon as we got after it, it really did show in my weight and everything and energy wise, too. I think my approach before wasn\u2019t wrong but it was not as good as the current one. I\u2019m happy to be working with Charles and just improving in this aspect of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was definitely concerned about it. The fact that I can\u2019t take a punch. I\u2019m struggling to go out there and just get out of the first round. These things bothered me so I was like maybe it\u2019s time to go 170 where I can continue to show how much I\u2019ve grown and improved. Fortunately, I was able to work with Charles and things are looking good.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as his level of competition coming off a 1-3 run at lightweight, Dariush understood why the UFC offered him Torres and the same goes for Salkilld. Both fighters are seen as future contenders but neither has faced somebody with Dariush\u2019s level of experience.<\/p>\n
While some fighters scoff at those kinds of matchups as if the UFC is anointing them as gatekeepers, Dariush took no such offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to fight the best guys in the world and I believe these guys are the best guys in the world,\u201d Dariush said. \u201cThey have a big future so I want to get my chance now that I can. There\u2019s no issue [facing these prospects]. I always look forward to competition so this is nothing new.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think [Quillan Salkilld] is really good. I think he has potential to be champion. I mean he\u2019s capable of doing everything. He\u2019s a good striker. He\u2019s a good grappler. He doesn\u2019t really have gap in his game. The next generation is looking really good right now. I\u2019m just hoping to delay it for a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long term, Dariush isn\u2019t thinking too far into the future because he\u2019s made that mistake in the past and it cost him.<\/p>\n
Now at 36, Dariush understands that he can\u2019t fight forever and that\u2019s why he\u2019s not looking any further than at the opponent staring back at him currently. Once he gets through Salkilld at UFC Perth on Saturday, Dariush will figure out what comes next.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just take it one fight at a time,\u201d Dariush said. \u201cI\u2019m at a place in my life where I\u2019m just taking things one fight at a time. Obviously, I\u2019m not 28 anymore, I\u2019m a lot older. I try not to plan my steps as much as I used to. When I was young, I was like I\u2019m going to do this, I\u2019m going to do that. Now, it\u2019s just one fight at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to do my best and see what happens after that. I don\u2019t want to think about it\u2019s this next or this next. I\u2019m just focusing on this moment. It brings a calmness and a peace to the whole thing, that I prefer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beneil Dariush has endured a very strange start to his fight calendar in 2026. Originally scheduled to return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":["post-641566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}