Beneil Dariush expects UFC to offer him Dan Hooker or Renato Moicano next
Beneil Dariush sees two logical opponents for his next fight.
After amassing an eight-fight winning streak, Dariush (22-6-1 MMA, 16-6-1 UFC) dropped two straight to Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan.
Dariush revealed that he was offered Jalin Turner for Saturday’s UFC 300 event, but it was Renato Moicano that got the fight after Dariush’s team didn’t even inform him about it. They preferred Dariush take more time off after back-to-back stoppage losses.
Moicano ended up rallying to submit Turner at T-Mobile Arena, and Dariush wouldn’t be surprised if he was offered to him next or Dan Hooker, who’s also coming off a win over Turner.
“I think they mentioned Jailn Turner,” Dariush told Submission Radio. “They would have preferred me to fight him, I think, instead of Moicano. So that was something they called me for, and I would have loved that fight.
“So, they would have wanted me on the last night’s card so, I think now they’re going to either give me Dan Hooker or Moicano. I think those are going to be the fights that they try to offer me.”
Dariush says he feels healthy now, but plans on getting back to contact training soon as he gears up for his next fight.
“I’m back into the building phase,” Dariush said. “So, I get to start sparring next month. And I get to start doing some light sparring next month. Yeah, I’m super, super excited for that, because typically I do light sparring all year round. What I mean by light sparring is, I put on light gloves and it’s more of a touch sparring, and you’re focusing a lot on takedowns. And then when I have a fight, I go really hard, with big gloves.
“Like, you just have basically what I would call the more normal sparring, where everybody’s just throwing at 80 percent to 90 percent. So, to be able to go back to just light sparring, something I haven’t been able to do in a long time, I’m very excited about it. But obviously I plan on fighting, and I don’t know exact timeline, but I think it’s going to be like end of summer or like more towards the end of the year. I don’t know yet.”