Beneil Dariush vs Mateusz Gamrot booked for UFC 280
UFC 280 is quickly becoming perhaps the best. most anticipated event of the year, as the promotion has already added two title fights, as well as three match ups of top contenders to it.
UFC 280 is to go down on October 22, 2022, live on Fight Island at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
First, we have the UFC lightweight championship main event between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev, coming just after the co-main event between UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling and former owner of that same title TJ Dillashaw.
The other three bouts are a welterweight showdown between no. 5 ranked Belal Muhammad and no. 9 ranked Sean Brady, a bantamweight bout between former UFC bantamweight champion, no. 1 ranked Petr Yan and no. 13 ranked Sean O’Malley, and lastly, a lightweight bout between another pair of top contenders in Beneil Dariush (no. 6) and Mateusz Gamrot (no. 9).
We all had high hopes for Dariush earlier on in his career; he has an elite BJJ game, he’s a credentialed black belt in that sport with numerous medals at World Championship competitions, and he’s a dangerous striker boasting a black belt in Muay Thai.
Coming over to the promotion as the RITC lightweight champion in 2014, Dariush would go 8-2 over the course of his first ten UFC contests.
But, there was a point where he went 0-2-1 throughout a three-fight stretch, being viciously KO’d in both defeats.
However, he’s completely turned his career around over the last four years, going 7-0 in that time over the likes of Thiago Moises (UD), Drew Dober (triangle armbar), Frank Camacho (rear naked choke), Drakkar Klose (KO), Scott Holtzman (KO), Carlos Diego Ferreira (SD) in their rematch, and former interim champion Tony Ferguson (UD).
Mateusz Gamrot on the other hand came to the UFC much more recently, himself in 2020, and he came over as the KSW lightweight champion. He was also the former KSW featherweight champion, and he was 17-0 at the time of his arrival.
Expectations were certainly set pretty high for Gamrot coming into his UFC debut, and he would battle Guram Kutateladze in an epic war resulting in a split decision. Only he wasn’t awarded the victory, despite what most fans and media thought of it.
Hell, just look at these numbers: Significant strikes – Gamrot 52, Kutateladze 37. Total strikes – Gamrot 69, Kutateladze 43. Takedowns – Gamrot 5, Kutateladze 0.
Nonetheless, Gamrot would rebound with four-straight victories over the likes of Scott Holtzman (KO), Jeremy Stephens (kimura), Carlos Diego Ferreira (TKO), and Arman Tsarukyan (UD) in a five-round battle that went down last month in June.
Gamrot, like Dariush, is a BJJ black belt, and he too has competed in BJJ competitions, placing in the ADCC European Championships on four separate occasions, winning two of them.
Who comes out of this epic lightweight battle at UFC 280 on top? Will it be Beneil Dariush or Mateusz Gamrot?
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