MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Beneil Dariush ‘Frustrated’ He Was Somehow Forgotten In Lightweight Title Picture

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

Lightweight contender Beneil Dariush joins the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer as he prepares for his return to action in February for a showdown with Islam Makhachev. With seven wins in a row, Dariush climbed near the top of the rankings at 155 pounds but after he took time off to welcome his first child into the world, he’s grown somewhat frustrated after being nearly forgotten when it came to the title picture in the lightweight division. Dariush will address the fight with Makhachev as well as Justin Gaethje getting the next title shot as well as his take on the upcoming showdown at UFC 269 between Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier. All this and much more on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer.  Follow Beneil Dariush @BeneilDariush Follow Damon Martin @DamonMartin Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify Read More: MMA Fighting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. I am Damon Martin. Today I am proud to be joined by one of the top lightweight fighters in the world, and he is getting ready for his return to action in February for a massive, massive matchup, a number one contenders bout against Islam Makachev. Welcome back, my friend, Benil Daryuz. Benil, how are you? I'm great, my brother.

Thank you for having me. Absolutely, absolutely. Benil, before we get to any fight stuff and all... Listen, we'll talk about that in a minute. How's the family? How's fatherhood treating you? It's good. I just, we just started feeding Alva, and today I was sitting there and trying to feed her. And my wife's like, look, she's right there.

She's always around, man. And I'm like feeding her, and my wife's like, no, no, just give her the whole food. I'm like, no, you're making a mess. So, you know, the little things like that. But, man, we just got to, we started feeding her. And she looks at us when we eat. So it's a whole new thing now. And I thought I had the hang of everything.

And it's awesome, man. I'm so blessed and so stoked for all of it. Absolutely. I know when we spoke, you know, going out of your last fight, you know, when you were going to take some time off for everything, you were looking forward to it. But how has it been? Like, how exciting has it been just to actually spend some time with your kid?

And, you know, be a dad. I mean, let's be honest. You know, when you're preparing for a fight, you kind of go in this mode where you're training and your focus changes. And that's part of the reason why you want to take the time. time off to actually be a dad. Yeah. So, you know, how do I explain this?

For example, even when Ala came, I was training two times a day. The difference is all the little things you have to do that require when you're fighting. For example, I have to lose weight, right? So when I get home, I'll get on a treadmill. And it's not really a tough workout, but I still get a. got to get on that treadmill and, and it'll take me like an hour because I'll jump in the sauna and then ice bat. So it could be like anywhere between hour, hour to two hours. And that's two hours I'm taking away from my daughter. And then when I do get to my daughter and wife, I'm

exhausted. And so that was one of the reasons why I didn't want to fight so soon, just because as much as I enjoy the process of fighting, I don't want to miss out on, on my daughter getting bigger and just growing up and all these firsts that we went through. I think I would have missed a lot of them if I had fought, let's say, like, September or October. Yeah, and you only get this once, right? Like, there's not going to be a makeup session for your, you know, for your child being, you know, in the first year of their life. Like, you don't get to make that time up, and a fight will come later.

You know what I mean? Like, we talked about that before. Some things, as much as your career is important to you and the title, all these things, there are some things bigger than fighting. And I know for you, that is your family. 100%. It's 100%. It's exactly what you said.

Like I couldn't have put it better at my stuff So now with that being said You know of course we know the fight is now booked You're going to be fighting Islam Makachev in February Can you kind of give me like how this whole thing played out Because let me give you let me give you Let me just kind of go on my little tirade first If you don't mind because I think Islam is a beast

Don't get me wrong I think Islam's a monster He's a great fighter And I think this is a great matchup But I feel like sometimes in this sport We have a tendency to get locked in what I call recency bias. You know, the guy that you just saw is the best thing ever.

We kind of forget about the guy we saw three months ago, you know, when Hamzaa Chamaa Chamaaamayev comes in a lightweight, everyone's, oh, my God, Hamza's the greatest thing ever. We're like, hold on now. You know, Kamar Usman's a, you know, six-time defending champion, maybe the greatest welterweight of all time. Let's slow down a little bit. You're a guy, you're on this incredible win streak,

and, you know, a couple of the, I would say, a couple of the biggest wins on Islam's record are guys, you actually have already beaten Tiago Moises. and Drew Dober. And of course, I would argue, you know, Tony Ferguson is, you know, the biggest win, you know, coming off that big win. Do you see any of that? Like, I don't know. Do you feel like any of that?

Like, all of a sudden, Islam's the guy where everyone's saying he should be getting the title shot. I'm like, hold on now. What about Benile? Binal's on a great winning streak, and I would argue against slightly better competition. So it was really frustrating because when I saw, I mean, I was okay when he fought Drew and then he fought Diago. and then he went to number six because I still thought, man, I'm going to get a title shot, you know. But then they were like, oh, he should be in line for a title shot. And then he fought Dan Hooker and then like immediately he was in contention.

So that part was frustrating. You know, I beat Diago and I beat Drew and I don't even think I got ranked at that time. I really think I didn't get ranked when I beat those guys. I have to continue to win before I got ranked. So am I frustrated? 100%. Do I put a lot of thought into it? Not too much because ultimately I have to beat everybody anyway.

And that's what's going to happen. I'm going to fight this guy. I'm going to beat him. And then whoever's champion next, I'm going to beat them next. Just need to focus on him now. And I can't, I don't want to keep playing this stuff in my head. ah, well, he only fought this guy and this guy, and now he's here. And, you know, some people get, you know, a little bit more credit faster, and some people, it takes a little longer.

At the end of the day, it's the best fighter who gets that belt. And that's what I plan on doing. Yeah. And let me be clear, you know, I think Islam's a monster. I know you guys share the same manager, you know, and Islam, again, I think he's incredible. I think he's, you know, what he's done lately has looked fantastic. I'm just saying that, you know, I think what you've done, you know, you should be a little high. higher range. You should be in a little bit better consideration. It's not a knock on him. It's just a,

you know, reality of what you've done. And I love this matchup. Let me be clear. I love this fight. But again, you know, like I said, when everyone's talking about, oh, you know, this guy and this guy for the title, and they're saying, is it Gagachie or Mokachev? And I'm like, hold on. Let me raise my hand here. Benil Daryush, anybody? Like, where are we out with Binal? Yeah. So, like, that's the other frustrating thing. You know, I had like, I think was four performance bonuses or and the Scott Holstman fight doesn't count because it was a miss weight. So it could have been, it would have been five of my last seven performances that were performance bonuses or one of them was a fight of the night. You know, with all that being said,

all these other guys would beat Tony got a title shot too. So it's definitely there. Like it's, I get it. Man, but I know the more time I spent talking about it, I don't think I'm going to to get the the the my bosses to hear me I'm just going to be frustrating myself and and at the end of the day people talk about Islam like he's the next champ already so let's let's put away the next champ let's show the world that uh I'm the guy yeah I know a guy that you have a lot of respect for we've talked about it because I know you've trained with him is just engaged you now it looks like then their Dana has said he's going to get the next title shot and then we have to assume the winner of you in Islam would be the next guy in line.

Are you okay with Justin getting the next title shot? Because I know you are, you know, as much as you can be a fan of a guy in your own division. I know you like Justin. I know you train with him and I know you have a lot of respect for him. Yeah, I think the, I think it made sense. To be honest with you, if they had made him, uh, fight, uh, Charles Olivera for the title instead of Chandler, I think that would have made even more sense to me because he was, you You know, the only loss he had was Habib, and that was recent.

He was the former interim champion. So it would have made sense if he fought Charles at that point. But they put in Chandler in there, which I guess I get it because they want to put new faces into that title contention. So, and now he's getting the shot at the belt. So I guess I get it. It's not an issue for me. My only thing is, it's just, wow, man, we're slowing down the division so much. I feel like we should be going through this a lot faster than we are.

Yeah, I feel like, and I, listen, I am a guy who I, I 100% agree, when Dustin Porriet fought Connor in January, and then they said they wanted to do the immediate rematch, and Dustin took that fight instead of the Olivera fight, because it should have been Oliver Dustin back in May, and he took Connor, I get it. Like, I'm never going to fault someone for making, you know, seven figures, and, you know, going home and making the biggest payday you can make.

I'm fine with that, but I think that is what really threw things off. You know what I mean? Because if Dustin had fought Charles back in May, then Charles would have probably fought somebody else and then here, you know what I mean? And again, I'm not faulting Dustin. I 100% understand taking the Conner fight and making the big payday. But I think that is really what kind of threw everything into chaos. Right.

So it was that. And then, you know, the UFC saying, well, we don't want to give it to Justin because he just fought Habib and it's it doesn't look as good because he just lost the Habib and now he's fighting for the title again and then it just you know all it was so they tossed in someone brand new in there and Michael Chandler it what what it did was it just it blocked the division like just like you said uh Dustin Dustin Porrier you know made his decision do UFC made decisions and you know the rest of us are just sitting here waiting and just hoping to fight yeah now when you look at Islam you know you could argue that

that, you know, and again, I don't mean this is a knock in any way to Charles or Dustin or Justin, any of these guys. Just in terms of style, there are some people who would argue Islam is the toughest matchup at 155 because of his style, because he's wrestling. He never shies away from what he does well. He tries to take you to the ground, tries to beat you up on the ground. You know, he comes from that Khabib style of fighting. And again, it's very effective. In a way, you mentioned, everyone's trying to say he's the next champ, he's the guy. Okay, let me go out and beat that guy.

Is there a little bit of anticipation of, you know, beating the guy that everyone seems to be buzzing about right now? Like, we got a title fight a matter of days away, and people are saying this stuff about Islam. Is there a little bit of pride in there saying, hey, let me go beat this guy. And then, you know, when I become chairman, it's even better. You know, I don't know if I would call it pride. It's just, I'm, I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like I'm a dog, you know, and I want to find the big. dog and take him out. I got a little chihuahua at home and every time he sees a big dog he goes after him. And I can kind of relate. I want to take out the biggest guy in my division. The faster I can

face him, the better. You know, when they gave me the Diego Farah fight, I was like, what the heck? Why are they doing this right now? He's like, we're both, we both deserve somebody higher rank, but whatever. He's one of the best guys in the division. Let's go. And then when they gave me Tony, I said, oh, awesome, let's go. And it's never been like, oh, I don't want to fight this guy because he's not ranked or this. I always look at him, do they have the skills? Is it a challenge? Is it, am I going to wake up in the morning and be motivated to train a little bit harder than I already do?

So Islam does all that for me. So I'm all about this fight. And as far as pride goes, I don't know. We'll see, after I beat him, we'll see how I feel. Yeah. Now, I don't want to single anybody out and say, you know, anyone in this sport at this point is one-dimensional, because it's just not true. You know, early in your career, people said, oh, B'Neil's a grappler, and now you're going out there knocking people out, so you're, you know, so we know Islam is more than just a wrestler. We have seen him strike.

We have seen him do those things. But if I was a betting man and someone said, hey, how do you think Islam's going to fight this fight? I would say he's probably going to go for a takedown. He's probably going to try to out-restle. Now, you again, I mentioned come from that Brazilian jiu-jitsu background, you come from the grappling background. I know you've kind of mentioned this in a couple of interviews, but can I imagine that if Islam is trying to wrestle, if that is his game plan,

there's no fear in your heart of going to the ground with the guy like that? No, I'm not worried about going to the ground with him. I'm not even afraid to wrestle with him. I've been wrestling for the last, I want to say, like, 10 years, maybe more. I've been wrestling for a while now. I'm not afraid to wrestle. I'm not afraid to do jiu-jitsu. You know, I can do it all.

If he wants to strike, we can strike. I started when I was 18. I started a little bit late, and then three years later, I started doing some wrestling. So I started late, and here I am at this point. Like, what I am, every fight I get better because I recognize that I started late, and in order to catch up, I have to do a little bit more. I have to squeeze in a practice here, I practice there, and I'm constantly doing that.

And nothing's changing for this fight. Nothing's going to change when I face Islam. I'm going to look for every opportunity to do a little bit more to get a little bit better and get a little bit ahead. And having this guy in front of me, it motivates me that much more to do all that. So I think whatever situation he wants to take this fight, I'll be ready. You know, everyone is assuming because he's a wrestler

and you come from Jiu-Jitsu, that it's going to be Islam's scoring a take-down and Benile working off your back. I disagree in a way because I think we just saw with the Tony Ferguson fight and Tony's a great wrestler. I think people forget that.

Tony's a phenomenal wrestler in his own right. You took him down multiple times. You clearly outgrappled him. You clearly outrestled him. Who's to say Benil doesn't take down Islam? I mean, I plan on it. I mean, I'm pretty open with my game plans. Everybody I fight knows what I'm going to do.

I'm going to punch you in the face and I'm eventually going to drag you to the ground. So that's what he should expect from me. Is there any part of you, when I talk about, you know, everyone's talking about his wrestling, is there any part of you that feels like if this fight does stay standing or gets, you know, if there's any, you know, extended period of time, we've got to be clear, five-round fight.

I know that, you know, main events, you know, that's a big deal. And we know, you know, why they make five-round main events, you know, you find out what you're really made of in a five-round main event. Is there any part of you, though, that feels like if this fight stays standing for any single, significant amount of time, it's a bit more of a mismatch there than any other part of this game, if you know what I mean, your power, your striking has come so far. I mean, that's become a legit weapon for you, whereas, you know, some people, it's just like, let's survive

long enough on the feet to get it to the ground. You're a guy knocking people out on the feet. I think I definitely have an advantage in the power aspect of the striking, but you have to recognize, too, with him, his striking has improved so much since he first started in the UFC. He's great at Faints now. He used to throw a lot of question mark kicks without really setting them up. He does a better job setting up his kicks.

He does a better job at Faints into level changes. So as much as I do believe I have the advantage in the striking, I'm not just going to be like, ah, I got it if the fight is just stand up. It has to be calculated pressure, calculated attacks. It has to be just, I can't give him room to breathe because when I give him room to breathe, he does, he does well. Yeah.

And you got to be excited though this is a main event. I mean, this is a big fight. You want five rounds, right? Like, this needs to be a main event. Yeah, I mean, I always tell people I feel like I'm built for five rounds. I come out fast the first round and then, you know, I try to finish as hard as I can for the next two rounds as well. But, like, I think five rounds would be great because I'm just going to have to dig, so deep that start fast and die fast, basically.

I'm going to end up dying in the fifth round, but I'll be winning the fight. So I'm looking forward to it. It's, I don't know if anybody's going to be able to keep up my pace for five rounds. I plan on putting on a pace that is unmatchable. Yeah. Now,

this is all coming together just fairly, fairly recently. And again, as I mentioned, you and Islam share the same manager, the great Ali Abdel-Azzi. So I know if there's one guy out there battling for you to get what you want, it's going to be that guy.

Has he told you, or has the UFC mentioned, I mean, I have to imagine that this is going to be a number one contenders fight. Have they said that to you? Have you heard that? All he said, it has to be, but I don't know if he's heard it directly from the UFC. It's, um, that's just the way it goes when it comes to, uh, to, to, to the UFC. There's a lot of politics behind it. And, and you got to, you got to understand as a business.

and having my own business, I recognize what's going on there. I'm not that easy to market. I don't speak out too much. I don't, you know, get on the camera and say ridiculous things or go on Twitter and just, you know, try to promote fights. I just show up to fight and I enjoy the fight. So with that being said, it's a little bit harder to promote me. So if they don't put me number one contender next fight, I mean, I don't see that.

happening. But if they don't, I understand why. And it's fine for me. I just say, okay, line up the next guy. Like, who do you got that you think is going to stop me? If Islam can't do it, who's next is what I'm going to say, basically. And I'm going to just keep knocking people down until they have no choice. Until Dana's like, I got, I got nobody else left. Go ahead. It's yours. Yeah. What's crazy is, and this is, again, this is not to, you know, not to knock the UFC, but, you know, even though you're not the guy out there banging the drum and, you know, I look at me, I'm the loudest guy in the room, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. I mean, we've done enough interviews and go back enough years that you have an incredible story.

I mean, you have an incredible story, you know, coming up. And so I think, like, I think if people get to know you better, I know it sounds weird to say, but if people get to know you better, you have such an incredible story, I think people will get behind you. And I hope with a main event like this and a big fight, you know, where you're the headliner, where you're the main event, that the UFC will get a chance to kind of tell that. story and let the audience know i mean we've done a million interviews and we've talked about that in the past but you know this is the chance for them to kind of put you on ESPN and and have you you

do i hope they do that because you do have an incredible story and even though you're not the trash talker i feel like people can get behind a guy like you and that still matters in the sport yeah i i think so too i mean it'd be cool if we if they do stuff like that that i think it would be a great idea um obviously if getting to know me means, you know, better, better for the UFC and better for me. I would love that too and just to get my story out there. Again, you know, like we talked about earlier, the most important thing for me is faith and family.

So like, if this happens, great. If not, no problem. Just line them up. That's all I ask is line them up and let me do what I do best. The gift that God has given me, let me just use it. So if that's the case, let's just keep it rolling. uh let's just keep rolling through these guys yeah let me ask because of course your fight's coming up in february uh before that of course coming up in a matter of days is the lightweight title fight

between desta pori and charles olivar and i know we've talked multiple times about charles oliver a guy you were supposed to fight i'm not going to rehash all that but i know you have history there uh let me ask you about that fight in particular because a lot of people seem to be picking dustin and i understand that dustin's a monster no no doubt about it but i think a lot of people are just completely discounting Charles, which is ridiculous. So I want to get your thoughts on that fight and kind of your, you know, how you see that one going, because of course you have an opinion, but you also have a vested interest because the winner that could potentially be your opponent coming up down the road.

I'm actually leaning towards Charles, to be honest. Not by much. It's not like a heavy lean, but I'm leaning towards Charles because I think his grappling is so much, it's so much better than Dustin's. I don't think Dustin really has the the grappling that Charles has. I think Dustin is a good grappler, but Charles is definitely a couple of notches ahead, and I think that will be the difference. The real issue I see with Charles is his mindset.

You see him some fights. He's there. He's present. He's willing to dig deep. And then sometimes he's not. It's going to be which Charles shows up. So if the Charles we saw against Chandler shows up, I think he has a very good chance of winning.

If the Charles, who, you know, would face a little adversity in Bragg shows up, then I think Dustin Poir is going to dominate him. Yeah, it's funny because I know Justin Gaichie has said that, and he said that to me in our interview a couple weeks ago, he said, you know, I don't see that dog in Charles. And of course, Charles has battled back and said, look at what I did in the Chandler fight, but we have a lot of history on Charles to say that unfortunately there is a, you know,

there is a pattern with him where he has kind of fallen apart when there's adversity. Now, he's on a great win streak right now, and it seems like he's gotten past that. You know what I mean? He did that in the Chandler fight. He got hurt very badly in that first round. He survived and came back. But we can't deny that there is history there with him that unfortunately when the going gets tough, you know, unfortunately he did not react very well to that.

So there is a history with him, you know, not bringing the dog out in a fight. You know what I mean? Like we can't deny that's never happened because it has. Exactly. And obviously I think Charles can recognize that and he's obviously improved on that. But it's there. Everyone's thinking it's there. Everyone sees that it's there.

And everybody's going to look for that. So I think Justin is not wrong in what he's saying. I think Charles can obviously prove him wrong with each fight, but we've seen it. We've seen it. we've, and we recognize it, especially fighters, we recognize, like, one of my favorite things, when I fight, even when I used to grapple in jujitsu, I would face opponents who were better than me technically, but I would just stay on them and I would just be as, I would be as relentless and as resilient as possible, and eventually it would be, okay, the gap would get a little bit closer

and a little bit closer and a little bit closer, and all of a sudden, they're not better than me. I'm pushing them around. And all of a sudden, I'm, you know, I'm starting to break them. And that was one of my favorite things was to get after a guy like that and make him crumble. And, you know, I think other fighters see that. And other fighters have that as well. They recognize that. And I think a lot of people see in Charles that they can make him crumble.

Yeah. I'm kind of like you with this fight. I lean slightly towards Dustin because I think Dustin is, you know, gritty and tough. And the striking is there. And he's an incredible boxer, all those kind of things. I agree, though, I think, Oliver is, I 100% believe he's the better, grappler, the better ground fighter.

But I lean Dustin, but kind of like you, I'm not overconfident. I would not be shocked in any way, shape, or form if Charles Oliver walks out there and shocks the world and beats Dustin Porrier. It's a great fight, though. It's a great matchup. Let me ask this to you, B'Neal,

because, again, I know, I probably know the answer, which is it doesn't matter. But do you prefer one guy over the other? And the only reason I ask that question is because I know you're not a guy who takes anything personally. I know you're not a guy who trash talks. But I know, and you're going to smile when I say this, I know there's a little bit, a little bit of animosity meant me the wrong word, but there's a little bit inside.

You still want that Charles Lovera back just because of how that last one kind of fell apart. There's definitely history there. Like, you know, I asked to fight him and we were scheduled to fight, And then he said he had family issues. And I said, oh, I understand, you know, family comes first. And then like a month later, he was scheduled to fight Tony. So that, that rog me the wrong way for sure. I mean, we could, yeah, I would say I would definitely want to fight Charles.

But at the same time, Dustin has got such a great legacy, you know, even though he was never, I mean, he was the interim champ. So in my eyes, he was champion. And so he has such a great legacy, too. Fighting him would be great as well. I don't know. I don't know which guy I would pick, but, but, you know, if we, we get down to it, I'd probably pick Charles.

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Would you argue, though, and I know this because you have so much respect to him, would you argue and say that you could, or you could argue that, you know, Justin might be the toughest matchup of anybody at Lightwood. And I know what respect you have for that guy. I think you joked me one time and you're like, man, I don't want to fight that guy. I know what it's like to fight that guy.

that guy. Yeah, man. If Justin comes in and he executes his game plan on fight day, he's terrible to fight. He has excellent footwork. He has excellent power and he can do it all night. And to deal with the guy like that, if you're not willing to take a few to get in there to possibly take them down or just take a few to give a few and exchange. with him when you need to exchange with them and then and then outsmart him when you have to outsmart him it's man it's a miserable fight like it's not it's not that great it's not that fun to think about because you know you can come out winner but you'll be busted up yeah you can come out the loser and you'll be busted up too it's like I don't I'm saying like it's it's a terrible matchup it's uh

it's rough fighting uh just engage I never saw anybody like fight Justin gaugie and just like come out unscath. Yeah, it's almost like, I feel like you have to go in against Justin with like a game plan and stick to it because if there's a moment where you hesitate or there's a moment where you're like, you know what, let me just bite down on my mouthpiece and start swinging with this guy. It's not going to be a fun night because that guy feasts on that. And I think he's actually, I think Justin's gotten so much better in the last couple years. And he's talked about this, the changes he's made and the mentality and things like that. But again, you will stand in front of that guy and start trading punches. That's just, you know, it's like, it's like,

trading punches with a stick of dynamite, you're just waiting for something to blow up in your face. Exactly. You'll get caught with that uppercut or you get caught with that overhand. I mean, it's brutal. And for a guy like me who does get frustrated, you know, when he's denied and he can't do certain things, I do rely on that, like, bite down on the mouthpiece and go. So, yeah, man, I'm not going to lie. Justin Gage is a tough matchup. Yeah. Now, I know you mentioned this in another interview, and I'm only bringing this up because he's always the X factor, which is Connor McGregor. Now, Connor's dealing with a broken leg. He's not going to be back until probably mid next year. But I know when Connor says, I'm coming back for the title, we all kind of laugh. We all kind of chuckle about it. But then we're kind of like, well, you know what? Connor does tend to pull off these weird situations where he kind of gets what he wants. Now, I don't think they're going to give him a title shot coming back. And I know Chandler, Michael Chandler, Michael Chandler has mentioned. he'd like to fight Connor. I think that's the perfect fight. Connor and Chandler is a tremendous fight.

You book that next year. You know, that's both guys are coming off a couple losses, but they're not, you know, I don't think either guys lost, you know, terribly in terms of who they lost too.

I think that's the matchup to make. As a fan, as a guy who watches the sport, that's kind of the right fight, right? Connor Chandler's the fight to make. No, because, come on. Connor's not getting a title shot.

He's not. I hope not. I mean, but I can tell you this, Connor is one fight away from a title shot. That's easy for Connor. He beats Chandler and I think they'll give him a title shot. Here's what I think.

You could do Tony Ferguson versus Connor. That's one. Or Tony Ferguson versus Nadee is I would love that fight. Or you could do Connor versus RDA. That's another one. Or like you said, Connor versus Chandler. I mean, I think Connor versus RDA might make more sense because they got some history.

But then RDA is coming off a win and Conner's not. So I don't know. I would say the RDA one makes more sense, but who knows. But yeah, there's definitely some options out there, I guess. You're right. Yeah, it's funny because you're right. Connor's always one win away from getting pretty much whatever he wants. And listen, I get it to a point.

He is a star. I'm not going to deny that. You know what I mean? But like I said, wins and losses have to matter at some point. point and two losses in a row to Porreier, you know, you can't, I mean, you're one in four, whatever it is this last five. Like, listen, I like Connor. I'm not, you know, I'm not knocking Connor anyway shape or form.

I've told this story before when I lost my last job and I, you know, they laid everybody off, you know, Connor was one of the first people to reach out to me and said, hey, man, hope everything's okay. It was a bummer. They shouldn't have done that. And I'm just like, whoa, that was out of nowhere. So I have nothing but great respect for Connor. But, you know, come on.

That's incredible. You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't get. a title shot you know and like I said if Dustin loses to Charles and again that very well could happen they they will probably book that trilogy and I wouldn't fault Dustin for going out and getting another big payday either you know what I mean like there's so many X factors with that guy Nate Diaz is out there you mentioned he's talking about going to welterweight I just I don't think he's going to come back and fight for the lightweight time I'm just being honest I don't think that's going to happen no Nate's not fighting uh lightweight I've seen the guy he's big he's not

trying to fight. He's not trying to fight lightweight, but I think it might be good for Tony to move up and fight at 170 as well, you know? Tony's a little bit older, so not having to go through that weight cup might actually make his fight a lot easier. Yeah. Can I imagine out of all the fights of lightweight that you could have either as contender or eventually as champion that Dosanos is the one you don't want? That's your boy, right? You guys are buddies. Yeah, like, for example, I'm friends with Justin, but Haifa is like a brother. When I was coming, coming up in the UFC, like he was the guy who kind of like helped me through all the processes. He helped me out of weight cut. He helped me like with going into fight week.

We were training together all the time. And he was teaching me how to do better conditioning, how to get strong. It's just I don't see myself ever doing that fight. I just couldn't do it. Yeah, yeah. Before I get you out of here, Benile, you know, we talk about fighting a lot. And of course, I love talking about fighting with you. But one thing we also have in common is coming.

back finally in 2022. I've already got the scheduled and ready to go. Sandigo Comic-Con is coming back next year. I'm so excited. Now, you've been a busy man. You got a family. You got your kids.

So I'm not going to say it. But have you been into anything lately? Pop culture? Am I going to see at Comic-Con next year? Well, that's the thing. You know, I saw Comic-Con bringing in some of the, like, some of the Japanese anime and the Korean stuff.

I don't know if you heard of like Solo Loveling. It's one of the Korean ones. that's really popular, man, I mean, I would love to go because there's a few I'm still looking into and would be cool to get out there. I read some MMA once. I thought they were cool, but I've actually, you know, slowing down a little bit since the baby comes. The baby came.

It's been a little bit trickier. I don't have as much time to myself as I used to. No, I totally interested. Yeah, I've actually gotten way into like Korean cinema and TV and stuff. Like I got really like I watched Squid Game. I watched a lot of Korean films in the last year. Like it's weird. Like I was just kind of become immersed in like Korean cinema and films and things out there.

It's incredible stuff. I'm telling you, if you read solo leveling, you'll be hooked. It's it's drawn really well. It tells a good story. And then there's always one punch man. If they bring in one punch man, man, I would love to go. Yeah, I love that. So here's the thing.

All the fighters, everyone talks about, you know, they win the title. They want to go, you know, have these nightclub parties. They want to, I feel like if you won, you know, like you'd have your party at Comic Con. Like that'd be like the perfect place for a Bill Darryooch party. I would. I would. I would have the best time ever. But one step out of time.

We'll get there eventually. Yeah, I love it. Well, Benil, it is always a pleasure to catch up. But, you know, I appreciate taking the time. Best luck with your training camp. I know you got to fight in favor. Will you, because of course you're going to be going into weight cutting mode and everything, will you at least get to eat a little bit around the holidays, like a little bit?

Yeah, yeah, we're not that close to the fight. Yeah, we'll be fine. And, you know, if I'm consistent with what I need to do for the weight cut now, it'll be a smooth weight cut and the holidays will be no issue. I know, I know your child is still so young. She's not even going to remember her first Christmas, but I know you've got to be super excited about Christmas, right? Yeah, she doesn't need to remember We're going to remember it for her

And her mom is going to video everything And it's going to be It's going to be amazing That's awesome Well, Benilla again, it's always a pleasure to catch up With you, have a good training camp Can I wait to see you back in action in February And thank you so much for taking the time

You know I really do appreciate it Thank you my brother I'll see you soon Talk to you soon Bye bye Bye bye There he is Benil Daryu She has a massive fight coming up

in February against Islam Makachev. You could argue, I mean, lightweight is an embarrassment of riches. Because if you sit there and say the winner of this one is potentially the number one guy, then you got, well, hold on, what about Justin Gaci?

And then, of course, whoever wins between Oliver and Poria. It's just, literally, it's just the deepest, nastiest division along with welterweight, in my opinion, uh,

and now Bantamate too. But lightweight is just an embarrassment of riches. I do, I do hate that, you know, somehow Benil got lost in the mix. when this whole thing was going on, but I'm glad he got a big fight. It's a big matchup.

Arguably, you could say it is maybe the toughest matchup at lightweight, you know, I mean, even outside the champion, just because of how good Islam has looked lately. Either way, I'm looking forward to it and definitely appreciate Benil coming on Fighter versus writer this week. I want to say a big thank you, of course, to everyone that tunes into the show. Make sure you check us out on all of your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and of course over on MMA fighting.com.

We will see you next week for another edition of the Fighter versus the Rider. Thanks for tuning in. And we will see you that. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.