Beneil
Dariush is wondering if he can still compete at the sport’s
highest level after a knockout loss to Arman
Tsarukyan in the main event at UFC on
ESPN 52 on Dec. 2.
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It was the second consecutive knockout loss for the Kings MMA
product, who fell to former champ Charles
Oliveira in the opening round of their clash at UFC 289 in
June. However, Dariush revealed that there is a significant
difference in his mindset in aftermath of the two losses.
“Remember how I told you guys I just didn’t feel like I showed up
that fight [against Oliveira]?” Dariush told Submission Radio.
“No matter how I looked at it, I was like, ‘Man maybe I did
something wrong in camp, I’m gonna go back and fix it.’ So that was
my focus, I’m gonna go back and fix my camp and everything will be
better.
“So I went in back into camp and just tried to do everything the
best that I can and I had a really good camp for this fight. Great
weight cut, great conditioning, everything I did was solid. My
sparring looked great. And then I got to the fight and I didn’t
show up again. So now it goes from is it an issue of not showing up
to an issue of maybe I don’t have it anymore.”
Dariush has experienced struggles in the past, notably going
winless in a three-bout stretch from March 2017 to March 2017. He
would rebound with eight consecutive victories to establish himself
as one of the top contenders in the UFC’s lightweight division.
This time around, Dariush is letting his coaches decide the
timeline for his Octagon return.
“My coaches are asking me since I’ve had back-to-back concussions,
they want me to take a good amount of time off,” Dariiush said.
“They haven’t really told me exactly how long that is so I’m kind
of at their mercies. [Because] typically if you’re winning and
you’re performing well, you could be like, ‘Hey coaches, I’m
winning and I’m performing well.’ But currently I’m not performing
well or winning so they get to have more control than usual as far
as when I get to fight…If it was up to me I’d like to be back
February-March but I think it’s gonna be a little longer than
that.”