Benoit Saint Denis vs. Beneil Dariush Booked for UFC 322
Benoit Saint Denis vs. Beneil Dariush is a consequential contest at lightweight which is set to go down in Madison Square Garden. On November 15th in New York City, Saint-Denis vs. Dariush are now locked into a battle of top 15 fighters at 155 pounds which was confirmed by the former’s manager to RMC Sport.
Saint Denis has had a strong campaign this calendar year so far with back to back to back submission victories over Kyle Prepolec and Mauricio Ruffy in May and September, respectively.
BSD is ranked number thireteen in the divison while Dariush is slated at number nine in the weight category.
In his most recent in-cage outing, Dariush bested former UFC lightweight title challenger Renato Moicano in June. This re-inserted Dariush into the win column after enduring a two fight skid heading into that Summer bout.
Benoit Saint Denis vs. Beneil Dariush overview continued
Benoit Saint Denis vs. Beneil Dariush is an exciting fight which underscores just how deep the UFC’s lightweight division continues to be. BSD also snapped back from his own two fight stretch of losses with defeats to Dustin Poirier and the aforementioned Renato Moicano before securing those consecutive wins over Prepolec and Ruffy as mentioned.
Dariush seemed poised for a UFC title shot at one point until a devastating loss to former lightweight titleholder Charles Oliveira in Summer 2023 put a kibosh on those plans. A subsequent loss to highly ranked competitor Arman Tsarukyan put Dariush on that aforementioned stretch of back to back losses that he snapped at UFC 317 against Moicano.
UFC 322‘s main event is not a contracted lightweight bout but it does have some quasi significance for 155 pounds insofar as a former divisional kingpin is in the headliner. Former UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev aims to enter the rarefied air of two division UFC champions throughout history. To do that, the Dagestan standout will have to unseat welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena from his 170 pound throne.
