Beneil Dariush explains why Alexander Volkanovski faces hard time vs. Islam Makhachev, other UFC lightweights

Beneil Dariush believes Alexander Volkanovski would be tested like never before against Islam Makhachev.

Volkanovski (25-1 MMA, 12-0 UFC), the reigning UFC featherweight champion, weighed in as a backup for this past Saturday’s UFC 280 lightweight title fight between Makhachev and Charles Oliveira. Makhachev (23-1 MMA, 12-1 UFC) submitted Oliveira in Round 2 and called Volkanovski over to the octagon for a faceoff afterward.

Makhachev is eyeing a superfight against Volkanovski for his first defense at UFC 284 on Feb. 11 in Perth, Australia. But after being around Volkanovski during fight week, Dariush (22-4-1 MMA, 16-4-1 UFC) thinks he’d struggle with the size difference when going up against strong lightweights like Makhachev.

“Well, I mean, obviously I don’t want to discredit him, but he might be too small for 155,” Dariush told Submission Radio. “Like I said, might be. I’m sure people said that to him at 145, too. But I just think we have a big weight advantage on him. But that would be my only thing. And no one really tries to grapple him at 145.

“I don’t think I’ve seen anyone really try to take him down. So I think the fact that he would be fighting a lot of grapplers, like a lot, man – my division, I didn’t realize it, like every single person is a grappler. Everybody loves to just wrestle. So I think it’s so different, and I think he would have some problems with that.”

Dariush, who defeated Mateusz Gamrot on the same night, admits he was disappointed to see a matchup between Makhachev and Volkanovski immediately being set up given that he is on an eight-fight winning streak of his own.

“It was a bummer,” Dariush said. “It sucks. I figured I put on a good show, maybe this was enough to maybe tip the scale back in my favor, but I guess not. Which is whatever.”

He continued, “I did want to speak with Dana and Hunter, so I’m hoping I can maybe set up a meeting with them next week or something and get it figured out like that. Because I really do want know where I stand.”