Alexander Volkanovski believes it might be fair to say that he got in the way of Beneil Dariush’s UFC title hopes.
There was a time when Dariush was on a hot streak in the lightweight division. “Benny” amassed an eight-fight winning streak within four years and appeared to be on the verge of a title shot. Volkanovski chased champ-champ status and challenged Islam Makhachev twice for the 155-pound gold.
Dariush’s streak was snapped when he suffered a first-round TKO loss to Charles Oliveira in June 2023. Dariush has gone 1-3 in his last four outings.
Looking back on that time period in a video on his YouTube channel, Volkanovski thinks he may have played a role in Dariush missing out on a UFC title fight (h/t MMAJunkie).
“I really do like Dariush,” Volkanovski said. “I feel for him. … He should have fought for titles, and then that was when I obviously deserved my chance at champ-champ. I ended up taking where he probably would have been.
“He would have been backup, he would have been next if it wasn’t me, and then sh*t, I feel like it’s my fault that he never got that title fight. He’s a good dude, too, and definitely deserved it at that time. But obviously people say I deserved it, and that’s a fight that ended up happening. He was meant to pretty much get it after that, but he ended up losing and sort of went south from there.”
Dariush will be back in action on Saturday. He is set to collide with Quillan Salkilld at UFC Perth. He’ll look to rebound following a 16-second knockout loss to Benoit Saint Denis back in Nov. 2025.
Do you think UFC would’ve given Beneil Dariush a title shot if Alexander Volkanovski never competed for the lightweight gold? Sound off in the comments below.
