Beneil Dariush delivers prediction for Poirier vs. Chandler at UFC 281: “He puts himself in really bad situations”
No. 4 ranked lightweight contender Beneil Dariush is ready for the 155-pound war scheduled to go down at UFC 281 on Saturday night.
Emanating from the world-famous Madison Square Garden, the UFC is bringing out the big guns for its return to New York City with lightweight fireworks as top contenders Dustin Poirier and ‘Iron’ Michael Chandler are scheduled to scrap. Coming off a big win of his own against Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 280, Beneil Dariush sat down with Luke Thomas of Morning Kombat to give his thoughts on the highly-anticipated bout between Poirier and Chandler on November 12th.
“It’s a three-round fight? If Chandler fights smart, he should be able to win this fight,” Dariush said. “But I think Chandler, right now, he’s so focused on being exciting and so focused on being entertaining for the fans, he puts himself in really bad situations. I think if he goes out there, plays a very conservative striking game, a lot of wrestling, he should be able to pull this off.
“But in reality, I think Dustin Poirier’s gonna end up winning this fight, because Chandler’s gonna try to be more than he needs to be,” Dariush added. “I think he’s gonna end up losing the fight because of that.”
Beneil Dariush on His Next Opponent Inside the Octagon
With his unanimous decision win over Mateusz Gamrot last month, Beneil Dariush finds himself on an eight-fight win streak with notable victories over Drew Dober, Drakkar Klose, and Tony Ferguson, Dariush is in the market for a top-five opponent, though he’s not exactly convinced that anybody in the top five wants to step inside the Octagon with him.
“If I have someone to fight come, what is it (UFC 284), February 11, right? I’m kind of excited for it, I’d love to go to Australia and (fight) there,” Dariush said during an interview with Submission Radio. “I would wanna go out there and I do wanna fight someone good, ideally. The real question is, who? … Charles would be great, but is Charles gonna be ready? Is he gonna be in the mindset where he wants to fight again? If not Charles, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure the top five are really interested. Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler, if one of them wins, I don’t think they’ll want to face me.”
Beneil Dariush did mention top-five contender Justin Gaethje, however, it is unlikely the two would ever fight as they are good friends. With Poirier vs. Chandler potentially a title eliminator, Dariush could find himself against streaking lightweight Rafael Fiziev, though if it were up to him, his next opponent would be the former lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira.
“I don’t know who the right guy is. I’m gonna start asking you guys… Who do you guys think could actually beat me? That’s the guy I wanna fight,” Dariush said before Rafael Fiziev was brought up as a possible opponent. “Fiziev… he’s good, man. I like that fight, too. But we’ll see, I don’t hate that fight. Ideally, Charles would be better.”
