UFC veteran Beneil Dariush really is not sure what is next for him in terms of his fighting future.
Dariush, who suffered a knockout loss to Arman Tasarukyan earlier this month, recently talked with Submission Radio about his career.
“I’m still wrestling with it,” Dariush said. “Remember, I told you guys I just didn’t feel like I showed up that fight (against Charles)? 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 go into this fight and everything will be better.
“So, I went back into camp and I just tried to make 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. So, then I got to the fight and I didn’t show up again.
“Now it goes from, is it an issue of not showing up, to an issue, maybe I don’t have it anymore. So, I guess that’s the difference between this fight and the last fight.”
Prior to the losses to Tsarukyan and former champion Charles Oliveira, Dariush had reeled off eight consecutive wins. Included in that run were victories over Tony Ferguson and Mateusz Gamrot with four fight-night bonuses.
Beneil Dariush Has Been Here Before
Back in 2017, Dariush was stuck in a three-fight winless streak. He suffered knockout losses to Edson Barboza and Alexander Hernandez around a draw with Evan Dunham.
That came on the heels of winning 14 of his first 16 pro bouts, including eight in the UFC.
“I gotta be honest with you guys, Last time I was here, it was maybe 2017 or 2018, I was in back-to-back losses. And my goal in this game is to be the best that I can be,” Dariush said. “And I just remember spending a lot of time in prayer and trying to figure out if I was done back then. And I’m kind of in the same spot right now. I’m just trying to figure out, like, ‘do I go forward?’ or ‘am I done?’ kind of deal. Cause I’m not trying to be like a 50-50 fighter or even a top 10 fighter.
“I’m trying to be number one in the world. I want to be the best, and I’m not going to settle for anything less than that. So, yeah, I guess just that’s how I deal with it. I go back to prayer and see what the Lord kind of shows me. Last time, I had a lot of issues physically with my neck and just, I said I would solve those issues and then go back into the octagon and see how that goes.
“And I did that. I had a big change in my performance. I went from being 0-3 to like 8-0. And so, the neck made a big difference. But this time I don’t have any health issues. My neck is pretty good overall, I don’t have any issues with it. So, it’s a different spot I’m in than I was back then.”
