MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Beneil Dariush Deserves a Title Shot | Extra Credit Ep 30

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

Luke Thomas Changes things up a bit on episode 30 of Extra credit. Luke breaks down Beneil Dariush's win over Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 280. Luke also discusses Dariush's career as a whole and where he belongs in the title picture.  Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone, it is the 25th of October 2022 and it's time for Morning Combat Extra Credit. This is the podcast we do within the podcast. My name is Luke Thomas, I am one half of your normal full MK hosting duo. I appreciate you joining me, Brian Campbell of course and I host regular MK. But regular MK, we gotta make some choices about what we can get to and what we can't with the time allotted. We were not able yesterday to talk about some of the other results from UFC 280. In particular, Benil Dariush defeating Mateusz Gamrot on the main card of UFC 280. And what I normally do on this podcast is I go through five extra fights.

But I've got to tell you, I'm not feeling like that today. I'm feeling today like we've got to give Benil Dariush his flowers. So that's what today's episode will be about. Thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube. Please hit subscribe if you haven't already. And if you're a regular around here or otherwise, thank you so much for joining me. Okay, so let's talk about Benil Dariush's fight in part one with Mateusz Gamrot on that main card, what it all means and what it might lead to. And then I want to talk about some of the career he's had and why he is just so relative to his abilities and frankly at this point, his accomplishments, why he's so unheralded. All right, without further ado, let's get into it.

All right, so let's get to it. UFC 280, there were two other fights that we did not get to from that main card. One, of course, was the Chukagian versus Fiora fight. You know, it was not a great fight one way or the other. It was certainly meaningful, but I don't really want to talk about it. The one I would like to get to, of course, as I just indicated, would be Neil Dariush defeating Mateusz Gamrot. He wins via unanimous decision. One 29-28 and then two 30-27s. I think either score is

defensible, right? Certainly the second round and definitely the third round easily go to Dariush. The first round, somewhat debatable. In fact, if you look at the numbers, or at least you could understand a case for Gamrot if you wanted to make it. Both guys were even in terms of the quantitative totals from Fightmetric, both in terms of significant strikes and total strikes, 13 total, 9 significant. Gamrot having two takedowns with a minute and 22 seconds of control time. So what it would really come down to is how impactful was the control time? Did he get a lot from it? I would argue he didn't get much from it

and that the more impactful strikes came from Dariush. So there was a numerical equivalency but not a qualitative equivalency. And then after that, it really wasn't even close to being anyone's fight. But Dariush, again, quantitative totals round two. Dariush to Gamrot, 31 to 15. And then, of course, in the third round, 19 to 9. Gamrot getting a takedown in each of the rounds, two in round one, one in round two, and then one in round three, but only going four of 19, just 21% in terms of what he was able to do. And by the way, control time in the second round for Gamrot,

10 seconds, and then control time for Gamrot in the third, 35 seconds. But by the way, control time in the second round for Gamrot, 10 seconds, and then control time for Gamrot in the third, 35 seconds. But these are not, I mean, yes, he might have had control time under the strictest letter of the law, but it wasn't really controlling in any kind of meaningful sense, anything Dariush was trying to do. If you look at the targeting on this fight, Dariush very much mixing up his strikes, 59% to the head, 25% to the body, 15% to the leg. Gamrot, a little bit more head and body, not so much throwing any leg kicks. 66% to the head, 27% to the body, just 6% to the leg. Not a heavy leg kicker. So there you have it. Man, Dariush to me looked unbelievable in this fight. Here was really the reality. If I had to ask you a question as follows, how would you answer? Which was, what in this fight was Dariush unable to do?

Now, you might be able to say, well, he couldn't stop all the takedowns. But that's really not exactly what I'm asking. What I'm asking is, what portion of Dariush's game was not up to the task of what Gamrot had for him? Nothing. I mean, Gamrot is one of the better wrestlers slash wrestler scramblers, so he can chain takedowns together, certainly in the lightweight division, maybe in all the UFC, to be quite honest with you. Between this fight and the Saryukian fight, I feel like there's a decent claim to that. And yes, he was able to get on

some shots. He was able to get some takedowns, but he could do nothing with it because what Dariush could do is by the time the second and third round came, his down blocking was tremendous. Like he was able to get away very easily. And I think the lack of the control time, such as it even exists, speaks to that. But even in the first round, what you notice he was able to do was even if Gamrot was able to get on a leg or on his hips, he was able to find some way to counter it or minimize it and then re-threaten in the scramble, either by hoisting legs, turning into him, all different kinds of ways, rolling through when he wanted to.

There was a knee bar he was trying to get behind him. I mean, there was all different tricks he was trying to pull off. Gamrot couldn't really make much effective use of them, eventually had to let it go, or you would see Dariush break contact with the locked hands and then go right back to striking. Certainly in the striking, he was much better dropping Gamrot in the third round, right, which is not easy to do with a bomb of, I think, of a left hand, just absolutely sitting him down, right? Amazing. And then, obviously, getting more comfortable with the down blocking, better timing on the down blocking, better timing on what he wanted to do,

and then, of course, he could threaten with his own submissions. Again, to be clear, how many did they award submission attempts? You know, neither really got one, but I'm talking about in the case of counted submission attempts, but in the case of, for example, Dariush trying to create heel exposure or rolling underneath to go for the leg and then forcing Gamrot to either address it or escape, right? So the submission attempt was never locked on, but it was clear that's exactly where he was headed if Gamrot didn't do anything and he was able to get it. So what I really took away from this fight was kind of what the question initially indicated, which was, you know, what could he not do? He could basically do not whatever he wanted, but every part of Dariush's game was present,

available, and helpful in this context. He was the better striker, and you saw evidence of that. By the way, never shying away from the kicks, even at times when Gamrot tried to catch them. I think, again, the targeting numbers speak to that. Obviously, he was the better overall striker in terms of the damage he could do. By the way, this is what I mean. Gamrot level changing into a takedown and Dariush firing a knee knowing that, yes, if the knee lands, it will certainly hurt, but then there's going to be a scramble that's going to happen right after it and being down for that.

Just an incredible performance. He looked like he was ready, not just for whatever Gamrot had to offer, but with that complete skill set. And of course, no one is fully complete, no one is without their issues. I tend to think that grappling guys are going to be a tough matchup for Dariush, but unless they've got all the other pieces in place like he does, he should win those contests. I actually think it's the

anti-wrestling strikers who might give him a little bit of trouble, such as they exist. But, you know, we're just talking about a guy with a fully, fully mature skill set.

That was really the takeaway for me. There was never a place that Gamrot could take him or try to take him where Dariush felt like he couldn't swim. Never. There was nothing there that he just couldn't make full use of or defend to nullify and take away. That's when you really know you've come a long way and you've got a very impressive, good skill set is when you can defend against any kind of attack that your opponent might throw at you. And again, that might take some time to work its way through, but then after that, you can have offense in all the phases of the game as well. That was a performance by a guy who has not only a gifted athlete and a well-rounded fighter,

but a guy who you could tell has been in the trenches. A guy who has seen great heights, seen great adversity as well, learned from it, tightened up this, tightened up that, worked on this, developed that. So by the time, by the way, I think he's been in the UFC since 2014, so now eight years or so, by the time that Gamrot made his way into Dariush's orbit, he was just much more advanced in terms of the development of his game. A very, very, very solid performance. And by the way, we should also say this as well, Dariush ranked number six when this fight took place, Gamrot ranked ninth. Here's Dariush taking fights against guys like most guys in Dariush's position would be like, yeah, no, no, I'm not taking, like who wants to fight Mateusz Gamrot, right? I mean, what's the upside to that? Even if you think like you're going to get the win, it's like you're beating someone, yes,

the hardcores like Mateusz Gamrot, but it's not like beating Dustin Poirier, who's got a big name. It's not like beating Justin Gaethje, who's got a big name, It's not like beating Justin Gaethje, who's got a big name. Or you could pick whoever else, Chandler, certainly one of the more celebrated figures in the lightweight division. He took someone ranked lower than him, who is something of a hardcore darling, but doesn't necessarily have some kind of high media profile. Really, that's not what's happening here at all.

So just a very commendable performance, really no matter which way you look at it. Didn't get the finish, but Gamrot's a very hard guy to hurt. That's the other part too. It's like Gamrot is a very difficult guy to look good against. You can match him in the scrambling, and people might like that, but he has a way of just latching onto you and nullifying offense and making you just constantly fight on the defensive. There were moments, obviously, where Dariush had to be on the defensive to address those considerations, but he's now launching offense in the middle of them and forcing Gamrot to retreat from his countermeasures.

A phenomenal job by Benil Dariush. Phenomenal, phenomenal job. I saw Javier Mendez, the coach at AKA, did an interview with our friends over at Submission Radio down in Australia, and he was saying that Darius deserves a title shot. I really agree. Now, I don't know that he'll necessarily get one, but based on what he's done, let's look at his win streak here. This is just tremendous as well. He hasn't lost in four years, first of all, since losing to Alexander Hernandez, which was something kind of fluky. I mean, their careers have gone, the punch that Hernandez threw, he threw with intention and it landed and he was much faster. Darius just wasn't on his game as quick as he

should have been. So there's not, it's not a fluke. But what I mean to say is if you ran that back, who here is picking Hernandez over Darius? I certainly would not, right? And since then, decisioning Thiago Moises, submitting Drew Dober, submitting Frank Camacho, knocking out Jakar Klose in an absolutely wild brawl, knocking out Scott Holtzman, decisioning Diego Fajeda, who is a very tough guy to look good against, by the way, then running over Tony Ferguson in his last bout prior to this one. And then defeating Mateusz Gamrot. So you have a wrestler in Gamrot. You have sort of an unorthodox, granted a little bit longer than the tooth guy in Tony Ferguson.

Well-rounded jiu-jitsu player who can strike as well in Diego Fajeda. Scott Holtzman, sort of a tough physical wrestle boxer type. Jakar Close, a really in-your-face, almost a brawler type in certain ways as well. Frank Camacho, bite-down-on-the-mouthpiece type. Drew Dober, a little bit more crafty Muay Thai, certainly. And Tiago Moises, a very gifted operator on the mat. This guy got past all of them. So that's a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 fight win streak.

Guys, you're not going to see many UFC fighters who get 8 fight win streaks in any division ever. And that's what he is riding. I think just 33 years of age as it currently stands, yes, he really is something special. And he's not 34 till May, so he's got some time left to sort of ride out this nice position. That's the other part about it too. It's like, I don't think that the clock is ticking

where if he doesn't get a title shot in his next fight, he won't eventually get one or still be very good. But that 33 to 35 window is a very important window. Again, some athletes are going to age certainly at heavyweight. This is very true. But you know, athletes are tend to be in that 33, 35 range. That's when they get the most technical maturity. That's when they understand their body. That's when they know how to train. They've got a lot of experience under their belt for better or for worse in terms of wins and losses, right? And they're just ready. He's ready to take on the very best this division has to offer. Now, if you look at the rankings, that's where the problems kind of begin for him

because he is not the highest ranked guy at lightweight. Makachev is currently your champion. Oliveira sitting at one. Poirier sitting at two. Gaethje at three. Darius now sitting at four. Chandler at five. Here's the thing, though. If Poirier's at two and he beats Chandler at UFC 281 next month, you might well imagine he would probably get the title shot, right? I mean, just by virtue of name. And you could say, oh, but his record of dominance is not nearly as good at this point, obviously

given all the wins and losses he's had, as Dariush is. That is true. That is true, but that may not necessarily matter. And of course, the other part is Dariush was supposed to fight Makachev, and he had to withdraw, so he ended up fighting, excuse me, Makachev did, Bobby Green ran right through him. Who's to say what would have happened in that contest? I tend to think Dariush, I wouldn't call necessarily a bad matchup for Makachev, but I definitely think he's a tough one, a very tough one. Because there's going to be no part, again, there's going to be really no part where he can't at least have some ability to address the various attacks of what Makachev can offer. So this is a special guy who is doing something special, and I really hope it gets rewarded. I don't know if it will lead to a title shot, but if they gave him one between the winner

of Islam Makachev and Alexander Volkanovsky, you would be very much understanding of that. So it would be really, really nice to see him get one because the guy, why hasn't he gotten one to this point? Obviously, he's had some losses and some setbacks. We'll talk about those in just a minute. But, you know, he goes and has these tremendous wins. And listen, every fighter needs to do the things that they feel are important to their values or important for their career. He doesn't like calling fighters out. He doesn't like making big statements. He likes talking about his religious affiliations and, you know, sort of being a very humble guy. reality isn't that this business that is not necessarily helpful for your career that doesn't mean every fighter needs to do the

opposite of that where they're just attacking every opponent and blah blah blah but if you don't make yourself a fan not really he's a fan friendly fighter but if you don't make yourself a visible entity to the market itself which is is driven by fan preference, you're going to have to take the slow road. You have to decide what is most important for you and what you want to do. And of course, you don't even know how much longer you have in your career and why you're one devastating injury away from the whole thing ending. So this is why a lot of people and a lot of fighters are very much in tune with trying to go and saying the loudest things and be the meanest they can and have a big

brash personality and attract attention and everything like that. He hasn't done that. It's really kind of, I'm not going to say set his career back, but I would put it this way, because the losses, we can't just say that it's his personality and the way in which he presents himself as the ultra humble guy that has held him back. I do think that has not advanced him as far as he wants to go. But the losses certainly play a role in that as well. Every time he was kind of building towards something, it kind of got set back against Ramsey Nijam. And it got set back against Michael Chiesa. And then he had that three fight stretch where he really, you didn't know if he was coming or going at that point.

But since then, since the Hernandez loss, which capped off the three of those weird fights, he's been on a tremendous, tremendous run. So he's going to be who he's going to be. He's going to live according to his values and he has to accept the results of that, positive or negative. And I think he probably is already quite comfortable with it. But as someone in the media space who observes what these guys are doing and tries to be as fair and honest about them. And to make sure that the media also does something of a job where they give people the credit that they deserve. Benil Darius deserves a title shot. He does. He does.

He has earned one in my judgment. You could say he needs one more against Gaethje or Poirier or whoever else. You can say that and it wouldn't be the end of the world. But to me, he's done everything he needs to do to get a title shot, to be the end of the world but to me he's done everything he needs to do to get a title shot to be quite candid this is a remarkable run he's on he's a remarkably talented well-rounded thorough fighter with a fan-friendly in-your-face style when he needs to be while still being quite cerebral I think that's the last part I'd like to make in this section of the podcast today which is that he has still a very offensively oriented style,

but, and he will brawl at times and be hit at times. That is still part of it too, but I do think he's got enough defensive sensibility, particularly against more elite opponents. He tends to fight up or down a little bit relative to who he is competing against, in certain ways anyway. But he still is action-oriented. You're not going to watch a Benil Dariush fight and be like, wow, he just laid on the guy. Some fights can be more exciting than others. But in general, this guy is out there looking to hurt opponents. He's looking to finish them off. And he's got a wide arsenal of skills to get him there. And as I just mentioned, now he's got a ton of experience upon which to build. So I really hope he gets what he deserves.

You know, a very, very, very talented guy. Imagine being as good as Benil Dariush and being yet as invisible in many ways as he is. It's kind of crazy. You can be that talented, that skilled, that much on a run, and still be like, I don't know if I'm gonna get a title shot. It's an unfortunate reality of the fight game, but it's the one in which he currently faces. Still, would be nice to see his efforts and success and accomplishments rewarded. Now, that being said, I want to talk a little bit more about the broader state of his career and what

brought him to this place, because the win streak is phenomenal, but he did have some setbacks, and I'd like to sort of talk about what lessons we've learned from them. Let's do that now. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy, consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Are you crushing your bills?

Defeating your monthly payments? Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. All right, I want to talk about, as I indicated,

some of the other parts of his career. So this is the win streak one more time. Tiago Moises, Drew Dober, Frank Camacho, Jakar Klose, Scott Holtzman. And those are good fighters. Those are great wins. But it's the last three where I think he's taken it up a bit. Diego Fajera, Tony Ferguson, and then obviously looking really good against Mateusz Giamrot, but it hasn't always been smooth sailing. He started his career defeating Charlie Brenneman.

This was back in 2014. As you guys might not know this, but Dariusz was a very decorated jiu-jitsu competitor prior to getting into MMA. There actually is something called the Dariusz Guard. At least there was at a time anyway. I'm not sure what they call it anymore. So then he follows it up with a fight in Abu Dhabi, of all places, against Ramsey Nijim, and he lost that one via TKO. He was just reaching out against Ramsey Nijim, and he got hit with a big punch and then polished off. It's interesting. When you watch Dariush's game historically, it looks a lot to the game today. You see someone when they first learned to strike when they got to the UFC if they were a great wrestler and they're not that great at it. And then you see them five, six, seven years later,

and it's massively cleaned up. Please don't misunderstand me. His game is very cleaned up, but the broad strokes of it are relatively similar. He was always good at jujitsu. He's actually a pretty good natural wrestler. He's got a lot of good wrestling scrambling answers. Got a lot of funk stuff too, to be honest with you. Not in the truest, purest sense of it. But it's not just down blocking that he uses, I'll put it that way, to get out of takedown situations. But it was the striking where he was always kind of very offensive but he was you know reaching a

lot you know extending himself too much and not being able to make the best of it boy he has really tightened that up so he followed that up after losing to Ramsey Nijm he went on a bit of a run defeating and submitting Anthony Rocco Martin who's a very good submission grappler for the first time Carlos de Aguilera then he submitted Darren Cruikshank a good striker he defeated Jim Miller he defeated Michael Johnson then he fought Michael Chiesa and just made kind of a bit of an error, right? He got taken down, tried to roll to his base, and Chiesa hopped on the back. And they call it a neck crank, but it was really just over, it was a rear naked choke over the jaw. You know, one of the situations where Darius just,

you know, a momentary lapse in judgment, it kind of got him. Part of these things are just muscle memory, right? You've got to know what to do in these situations. You have to drill it so many times that you don't make mistakes like that. That's where people talk about experience and what's the value. It's the value right there. I guarantee if he found himself in a similar situation, he would know where to put his hands, how to address it, what his posture should be, what his attack should be, how he wants to get to his base. All that kind of stuff that would have prevented that kind of scenario. Then he did follow it up with a KO of James Vick in UFC 199.

He followed it up with a very tough and unheralded loss against Rashid Magomedov. And then this is where all of the problems began to start for him. He then took on Edson Barboza in March of 2017. He got KO'd viciously. Now he got hit with a flying knee. The flying knee, you should go back and look at it on Fight Pass. It's not Barboza moving laterally. We saw, for example, the jumping switch kick of Oliveira at UFC 280. He covers distance with it. When Barboza did it, he went vertical. It's straight up and down. He got Dariush moving in and he just met him and popped him up and finished him off in one, and I don't know what

round was this. It was the second round, but finished him off with one strike. Just took his head off with that, right? Getting overly aggressive with it, not setting it up. If Barboza is able to time you that way, he could see it coming in. And also, it should be clear, 2017 Barboza is a lot better than 2022 Barboza. That's five years ago. But I think that was also a vicious, vicious KO. It's not so easy to mentally come back from that. Can you still have an aggressive game that has been something of the hallmark, at times getting over his skis. But can you still have an aggressive game after a difficult fight like that? Then he fought Evan Dunham who is a good submission grappler. Well rounded guy. And it was a draw. Just not really able to make it all work. Then he follows it up with a loss.

Another KO loss to Alexander Hernandez. Now that happened just 42 seconds into the first round. This was on the zombie rod. Excuse me, this was on the UFC 222 card. Um, he just leaned over, but to throw a punch, but Hernandez was first and got there first. And he ran headfirst into the punch that Hernandez was throwing. And that was it. He went face first, or I forget exactly how we fell, but it was instantaneous KO. It looked almost a little bit like, he didn't fall on top of him, but it looked almost like the Andrei Orlovsky-Paul Buentello KO, where you can't even hardly see it, but when they show it in replay,

you can see him landing flush on him and it put him out. So let's point this out here. He has a loss to Chiesa, which was just sort of a mistake he made, not like a devastating beating or anything. Comes back with two nice wins over Vick and Megamedov. Then gets viciously KO'd by Barboza. Has a very ho-hum performance against Evan Dunham. And then viciously KO'd again.

Folks, this might derail most people. You know, you get viciously KO'd in two of three fights where your lights are put out. They got to wake you up. You know, a lot of guys can't mentally recover from that. Look, Ronda Rousey took one of those and was never the same ever again. He took two of them. Two of them in three fights. By the way, one in 2016, November of 2016, and then basically a year later in October of 2017.

Excuse me, March of 2018. So a little bit, what am I saying? March of 2017 and, March of 2018. So a little bit, what am I saying? March of 2017 and then March of 2018. So in March of 2017 and in March of 2018, a year apart, he got viciously KO'd. Viciously KO'd. And what happened after that? He went on the run of his career.

That speaks to insane, committed focus, mental fortitude, self-belief, and I'm sure, please don't misunderstand me, I'm sure he's had doubts. I'm sure he's felt bad at times. I'm sure he second-guessed himself. I'm sure many many parts of this were a difficult awful journey right He must have in that so the day he got knocked out was March 3rd of 2018 I bet March 4th was a real bad day for him I bet that was a real bad I was a bad week in a bad month and maybe even the rest of that year was a bit of a bad year

Although he did rally against Moises at the end there in November of 2018 But you see what I'm saying? From the darkest period of his career, getting KO'd in March of 2017, ho-hum fight in the middle, and then getting KO'd again in March of 2018. Guys, he could have never been the same after that. And he wasn't the same after that. He was reborn. He was reborn after that. That is incredible. Dude, that's Michael Bisping level tough. And I don't say that lightly. That's Michael Bisping level tough.

When you can do that, when you can, you know, not necessarily be the best fighter every time out there. That's not what we're asking him to be. We're asking him to be high level and be elite, which he is. But we're not saying that every time he's going to be the best guy out there. And sometimes he's not only going to not be the best guy out there, he's going to be laying on his back looking up at the lights. And to do that, to get beat like that, and to come out and still have good well-roundedness and aggressive attack.

I mean, think about this. He had that awful loss to Hernandez and then still was able to go and have that just balls out crazy war with Jakar close. Unafraid, willing to take risk, willing to take damage, and yet still being cerebral at times, at most times really, well-rounded, hunting for submissions, hunting for the finish, taking on undesirable assignments like who the hell wants to fight Gamrot?

And did it. And did it and won. Again, I know that the fight game is predicated on entertainment. It's just a huge, huge part of it. And for many people, it's the only part of it. I understand that. And I accept that. And I accept that if you choose not to go that route, you're going to have to take a lonely road to get to the ultimate prize or at least a shot at the ultimate prize. And that is a bed that Dariush has made for himself. Again, I'm sure he's comfortable with that, but that's the reality. But I really, really hope folks can take a moment

and understand that, you know, does he have a super elite win on his name? I would say Gamrot is certainly of that. Ferguson's got a big name, but you know, he's long in the tooth. But since 2021, 2021 and on, he has really, really, really turned another corner. And to go and have the very best run of your career

after literally right at the very end of your very worst that could have just continued and stayed being his very worst he turned his very worst career moments and turned it into his very best that is remarkable that is special special special guy that can do something like that so impressive amazing and very much worthy of your respect

I hope Benil Darius gets a title shot I really do because I think the guy's earned it I think he matches up well in certain ways anyway with Makachev. And you would like to see someone who's put in that kind of performance and this kind of run rewarded for those efforts. And the last part I'd say on this is, you know,

when these fighters fight, people ask me, do I root for one or the other? You know, some of these fighters I like more than others. But in most cases, in most cases, the truth is this, and I mean this quite sincerely. Dude, this is too tough a sport, like, from the media side, to really take sides. Like, you just want the guy who deserves it the most to get his hand raised. And sometimes it's the one you like, and sometimes it's the one you're not. As a fan, certainly, anyway, as well.

You just got to make sure that the process was fair, that the person who earned it, man, hey, if they earned it, that's all you can ask for. All you hope is that there's a degree of fairness. But I also hope a little bit that the fan base can look at a guy like this. He's not going to dazzle you with brilliant one-liners. He's not going to give you unbelievable social media content where he's high-fiving Hasbulla and all this bullshit. But what he is going to give you is everything he's got every time out.

Dude, what else do you want? You want elite skill with unparalleled commitment. That is Benil Dariush. That's all you could ever ask for. And that's what he gives. I'd like to see it rewarded thumbs up on the video please hit subscribe

of course Morning Combat continues mañana will be in Arizona for the Jake Paul fight against Anderson Silva so plenty of coverage coming your way for that plus the other UFC fights this weekend thank you guys so much for joining me I appreciate it and until next time

enjoy the fights