Benny And The Jets: What Makes Diego Ferreira vs. Beneil Dariush the Next Card’s Sleeper?
UFC Vegas 18 is loaded. Gracing the card is matchups like Overeem-Volkov, Sandhagen-Edgar, Pantoja-Kape, Johnson-Guida, as well as other great names like Molly McCann, Macy Chiasson, Andre Ewell, and now, Youssef Zalal. The card is great. But perhaps the best matchup on the card is Diego Ferreira versus Beneil Dariush.
Diego Ferreira is the true dark horse of the lightweight division. His two career losses come back to back from Beneil Dariush and Dustin Poirier. Since then, Ferriera has been on an incredible run. Olivier Aubin-Mercier, Jared Gordon, Kyle Nelson, Rustam Khabilov, Maribek Taisumov, and Anthony Pettis all have fallen to Ferreira. The change in his fighting has been apparent. He’s aggressive, calculated, and well rounded.
The fight with Anthony Pettis was Ferreira’s most impressive. He drowned Pettis the entire fight, out grappling the black belt. Ferreira is one of the secrets of the lightweight division that could be trouble coming up. But first he must avenge that loss to Dariush. While Diego Ferreira is improved big time, Dariush has improved as well.
Dariush lost his last fight in 2018 to Alexander Hernandez. But, he’s had some great fights as of late. Thiago Moises, Drew Dober, Frank Camacho, Drakkar Klose, and Scott Holtzman have all been victims to Dariush’s resurgence. It hasn’t been boring from Dariush either. Armbar, rear naked choke, overhand left, and spinning backfist are the last four wins under Dariush’s belt. Already a notoriously good grappler, Dariush has won three world championships in no-gi Jiu Jitsu. He’s completely capable of holding his own on the ground and the feet.
What makes Diego Ferreira versus Beneil Darius So Fun?
These two guys have not had a boring match in the last 3 years. With the bangers from Benny and Ferreira have put on, it makes the card almost a guarantee to be a slobberknocker. Dariush has had to keep up with the opponents pace in his last few fights. The spinning backfist Holtzman was a chaotic four minutes and thirty eight seconds.
Dariush having been in the fire before means that any pressure that Ferreira brings will be welcomed with violence. And Ferreira brings the pace all fight. Dariush is going to go through hell to keep up with Ferreira all fight.
Don’t count out Diego Ferreira to take this fight to the ground as well. He’s challenged the best in the world, Pettis included, and dared them to grapple with him. While Dariush may be a world class grappler, that aspect of the sport is very different than traditional grappling. With the punchy-face and the cage, Ferreira can open up a lot more things.
This matchup may be between number 10 and number 13, but it can be one of the best the lightweight division has to offer. This fight goes under the radar because of the names in the division. Poirier, Oliveira, Chandler, McGregor, and all them, they hog the attention in the division. But this fight, it’s a sneaky one. The implications for the division points toward the next big contender. Benny winning puts him top ten in one of the deepest divisions in the UFC. Ferreira will literally fight anyone. Being linked to fights with Dober and Makhachev, he just wants to win. Ferreira putting the Dariush loss behind him would have his eyes then set firmly on the only other loss: Dustin Poirier.
