Beneil Dariush expressed his frustration at finding out he will not be used as the backup fighter for the UFC 280 main event.
UFC 280 is just five days away, in what fans are touting as the best fight card of the year. Abu Dhabi is the location, and Oct.22 is the date. The card is headlined by Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev, who battle it out for lightweight gold. Due to Oliveria’s last weight miss, the company is prepared for any hiccups and have allocated featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski as the backup for the main event.
Volkanovski announced the news via Twitter, and it came as a surprise to many, especially Beneil Dariush. Dariush will also compete in Abu Dhabi against Mateusz Gamrot, but the 33-year-old was under the impression that if any issues arose, he would be offered to serve as the backup.
Beneil Dariush on UFC 280 Main Event Back Up
Dariush addressed the issue on Submission Radio:
“At first, I was genuinely confused. And then I was pretty pissed,” he said. “And then I started just kind of thinking about it. I mean, I’m still kind of annoyed about it. I’m kind of butthurt but it makes sense if you think about it. So it was never like a like written agreement that I was going to be the backup but they said basically, they’re going to have me on the card fighting Mateusz. If something goes wrong, they’ll put me in and I was like, great and then you know, a guy like Volkanovski who’s currently I believe, number one pound for pound wants the volunteer and jump on that. It makes sense on their part, they were like, oh, yeah, we’ll take it. We’ll definitely take you as a backup so I get it, bro.”
Do you think Beneil Dariush deserved the opportunity to step in at UFC 280? Let us know in the comments!
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
