After what seemed to be a relatively calm UFC 311 fight week, things unraveled this past Friday moments before the official weigh-ins.
Islam Makhachev was scheduled to defend his lightweight title against Arman Tsarukyan in the highly anticipated main event, however, just moments before Tsarukyan was scheduled to weigh in, news broke that he withdrew from the fight due to injury.
UFC boss, Dana White then revealed that Renato Moicano would be stepping in to fight Makhachev as he was already on the card, scheduled to fight Beneil Dariush.
Unfortunately for Dariush, after a long strenuous fight camp, he will no longer compete at UFC 311 on Saturday.
Beneil Dariush was paid show and win money for UFC 311 fallout
Dariush’s last fight came against ‘Ahalkalakets’ in December 2023 and the 35-year-old was hopeful of rebounding from back-to-back losses after over a year out of action.
‘Benny D’ has admitted that when he first heard murmurs of the news that Tsarukyan was out, he thought he was going to be given the opportunity to step in and fight the champion, Makhachev.
“So I got a text message at around 4 AM, I don’t sleep when I’m cutting weight… I see Ali (Abdelaziz) text me saying ‘Hey, do you think you could make 155lbs?’ and I was like ‘Yeah I can’,” Dariush began to explain in an interview with The Schmo.
“I start to hear more stuff about Arman basically not being able to make it because I was thinking about it, if it was Makhachev having issues, they’re not gonna put me with Arman, we’ve fought already so I assumed it was Arman.
“I make weight and then hear more stuff that he’s not gonna make it and part of me is like, ‘Man, I think I’m gonna fight for the title’ so I come back to my room and work on rehydrating. Ali comes in and is like, ‘Hey listen, man, they’re giving it to Renato’,” Dariush continued.
With the change coming so last minute, Dariush has revealed that the promotion is paying him both his show and win money to soften the blow.
“It’s excellent, I can’t complain, they’re giving me show and win money so you know, a lot of people are like, ‘I hope they take care of you’, they are I appreciate Dana and the UFC,” Dariush explained.
Although many fans expect that to be the minimum the promotion should do, former middleweight champion, Chris Weidman recently revealed he wasn’t paid his full purse when his UFC 309 fight fell through on fight night.
👏Beneil Dariush announces that the UFC will pay him both his SHOW and WIN money following the UFC 311 main event change:
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) January 18, 2025
“It’s excellent, I can’t complain. They’re giving me both show and win money…I appreciate Dana, I appreciate the UFC, I appreciate Hunter”
🎥@TheSchmo312… pic.twitter.com/cx7vUgTIYm
Beneil Dariush names potential next opponents after fight fallout
Having already been out of the Octagon for over a year, the UFC veteran is hopeful of getting back to action sooner rather than later.
Following the fallout, Beneil Dariush claims he has been promised a ‘good fight’ next and he has outlined a few potential opponents he would like to share the Octagon with.
“I would like to ideally, if I’m super quick it would be March… I think ideally I would fight in April, someone ranked ahead of me. When I look at the rankings it goes Dustin Poirier, Max Holloway, and Michael Chandler.
“Those are the availabilities… Ideally, it would be Dustin Poirier, I don’t know what it is but lately, he’s kind of been bugging me too because you know there were talks of us fighting and then he’s like, ‘Nah I’m not interested’… He’s changed in my eyes,” Dariush admitted.
Dustin Poirier has continuously hinted at fighting once more, however, it is unlikely to come against Dariush as he has turned down fights against the 35-year-old before.