It is Benito Benny Dariush.

But, you know, thanks for the time.

I really appreciate it.

You're coming off your first win in about two years ago.

Moyes is just a couple months back.

How good did it feel to get back into the winning call them something you wanted to do for a little while?

Yeah, that was Ah, I'll be honest, man.

I was really nervous going into that fight.

So getting that victory was really big for me.

Very emotional.

I was just thinking to myself before the fight.

If if this doesn't work out, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

So just coming out there and performing well, I was really happy.

How did having your back up against the wall affect?

You mean?

As you said, you were nervous going in?

Probably more so than usual.

Did that play against you?

Play in your favor or sort of just in between?

You know, I think one of the things that made me do was fight a little bit more conservative.

I focus a little bit more on my grappling and ah, just made sure I don't take too many big risk.

Normally, when I fight, I like to just kind of go out there and do a little bit of everything.

And this fight, I, uh, a little bit more conservative, didn't give up anything and just made the maximum.

Took away Mac as much as I could.

How do you fallen short against Jog?

I mean, what would have happened?

You said that you were thinking about that going to the fight.

If something happens, I don't get the win, would you?

I mean, do you think they might have parted ways?

Would you have retired?

Do you?

I mean, not that we need to think about this anymore, But what do you think might have happened?

So those are the things you know?

God forbid that Go through your head.

You know, uh, what if it's another quick knockout?

What if, uh, maybe I get dominated?

Things like that make you think?

Am I really doing this?

I Am I doing this right or do I need to rethink what I'm doing Or is it time to give it up?

And I'm only 29.

I'm supposed to be in my peak right now and training.

I feel absolutely amazing.

I can I can hang with the best in the world, No problem.

But if I'm not able to perform, what's the point?

So with that being said, I just anything could happen.

Honestly, I The worst could happen.

Or I could just got back in the training and fought again.

Do you have any sort of answer for what happened on that To fight Skid Tiu to Hernandez and Bobo's?

Is there anything that you didn't do right or something that happened?

Something that changed that led to that.

You're on a roll.

You're doing really well.

Then all of sudden, you fall short a couple times.

Is that just sort of the luck of the draw?

How?

MM eight works, or did something happen to sort of cause that Ah, you could say it's a combination of everything, but I think in reality life sometimes you just need to have some trials.

If everything is always going smoothed and life doesn't work out so good I think you need trials and trials.

Make a man, you know, without trials.

You, you, you're you become soft.

And as much as I I wanna win.

Ah, and I take It's very important to me.

I think sometimes these lessons are more important.

How difficult has the past two years been?

I mean, from everything.

Just keeping your I mean, everything.

When it comes to you.

I mean, fighters fight to win.

You weren't doing that for the past couple years.

How difficult was it from finances to just being happy and everything Finances?

I don't know.

I'm not, um, not a big spender.

So it wasn't It wasn't such a big deal, but, you know, career wise, my whole job is to win, and I'm I'm not doing my job.

I'm working my butt off, but I'm not able to do it.

So that was making me second guess myself at every turn, which again works against you when you're fighting.

So it was just the It was kind of like a snowball effect.

Ah, with, uh, you're not getting the win, and then you're second guessing yourself and a fighter shouldn't be second guessing himself.

You go in there.

You need to be sharp.

So that was definitely very tough.

And, uh, but I will say, outside of that, everything else was great.

My family was always supportive.

My fiance was great.

So I I did have that support and thank God for that.

Because I think it wasn't like that.

I could have.

Could have been worse off in the fight against more is is it is a pretty clear decision win for you.

I think what really showed is that you were the more experienced fighter of the two.

You're the veteran between yourself and Chicago.

Did you sort of see that?

I mean, we're looking back on it in the fight.

You could tell that you had the experience advantage.

Yeah, he has nearly the same amount of fights as me, but obviously there's a difference with the UFC caliber and and, uh, the show he was fighting for L f A L.

A.

Phase a good show.

I think one of the things that really did help out was ah, experience.

Like you said, I, um I'm familiar with Colorado.

I fought in Mexico City before, and I'm I understand.

With high altitude could do to you.

I spoke with him after the fight and he said he spent 10 days in Colorado and I know that's not enough.

I spent 2122 days.

I think that was really the difference.

That's what made the difference.

I remember after the first round I could feel his just strength may be cut in half, maybe even more.

Everything he was trying to do was just less effective in the first round.

He was able to actually move me around a little bit.

He almost threw me.

But the second round, everything he tried and he just fell short.

Everybody likes the finish.

You went to the judges, but I is it fair to say you were happy with anything?

You would have taken anything considering the circumstances going in.

I'm always looking for the finish.

A couple of times I had their rear naked choke.

I made a small mistake with the details of the choke with with my hands and where my head should be and I couldn't get the finish.

That was really disappointing.

But the performance overall, I thought it was a great performance.

The judges gave me a 30 25 which which I have never had before.

So that was something new for my career.

So, yeah, uh, that was a great victory, in my opinion.

You almost Maura dumb in that fight without getting a finish.

Then you sort of expected you.

You could or would be.

Yeah, I never expected it.

30 25.

That that I would say so.

Yeah.

That was the most dominant ever.

Been in a fight?

This fight against rude uber in Wichita, Kansas on a couple months from now.

This was just announced.

Were you happy when you got the Colts way, Dover?

Not a top 15 opponent, But were you sort of satisfied with this matchup?

Yeah, I think Tober is really good.

I've met him before.

He's fought against my teammate Jon Tuck.

I know what he's capable of.

I know he's a good fighter at this point, and I don't I've never really cared about the rankings.

Even when I was ranked, I remember fighting James Vic on ah, four or five weeks notice, and he wasn't even ranked.

I was ranked, so I was risking my my rank with that.

The rankings have never been my primary factor as faras choosing fights.

If my opponent is really good, I'm not gonna complain.

And I know dopers really good.

Having trained with Jon Tuck before that.

An advantage for you just being able to get, uh I guess firsthand experience, knowledge and all that from from one of your teammates.

Oh, for sure.

John, John is so good.

So just getting to train with, um is, you know, Iron sharpens iron situation.

He's a great fighter and, you know, personal experience he had with doper.

He can kind of give me that.

That's also a huge There's a lot going on at the top of 1 55 right now.

I mean, could be we don't know when he'll fight.

Corner is still with the whole Nevada commission.

We don't know when Tony is gonna fight.

We don't know when anything is gonna happen.

Really?

Are you thinking about that at older?

Since I'm not that high up, I just think of it as Triple G put it.

It's a big drama show, um, kind of enjoying watching the drama show, but I do feel bad for some of the guys.

Guys like Tony Ferguson I think it's time for Ferguson and get his title shot.

I think poor yays up there and and these guys have made their way up, so they deserve this fight.

I'm hearing talks of, Ah, rematch between Habib and Connor.

I don't know if that makes sense, but it's not really my thing.

To get into my job is just to get back into the top five so I can start talking.

How long does it take for you to do that?

Depends where they give me.

It really just depends on which fights I get after this fight.

God willing, I win this fight, uh, just depends where they give me if they give me a top 10 opponent and then, you know, from that, I can move into top five.

Easy.

But if not, could take maybe 56 fights.

Is that frustrating?

Because it really comes down to who they give you.

If you look at the belt as your main objective, it's gonna be really frustrating.

And the belt is a big, big goal.

But it can't be my main goal because everything's every time something goes wrong, is just gonna shatter Your confidence is gonna shatter your mindset, so you kind of have to look at it differently.

Your goal should be to improve each fight.

And if I continue to improve each fight, the belt will eventually show up.

So that's kind of more of my mindset.

I can't be frustrated with not getting the best fights, but as long as I'm improving, I'm OK with it.

I know you're focused on Dover and probably don't want to look too far ahead of yourself.

But say you do get passed through Dover and a couple months.

What are you looking for next?

As you said, the UFC might rush you into top five fight.

Maybe they take it slow.

What would be ideal for you there?

Ideally, I would like a quick turnaround.

Ah, I said, God willing, I win and I don't get injured.

I would like a quick turn around and just get somebody quick.

I think top 15 top 10 makes sense.

How important is it to you to stay active?

I know.

I mean, you ask any fighter and they'll say, I want to stay really active, but is it is that sort of the main goal for right now get get three or four fights in 2019.

Yeah, I mean, when I first got into the UFC, I had seven fights.

I think in 18 or 19 months, yeah, and in that time I think I made it up to number seven.

So staying active for me is really important.

And then the past two years, I wasn't able to stay as active, and I think that was one of the components that kind of helped me back.

Being active as a fighter.

It just helps you mentally focus and stay in focus.

I can't explain it to people, but once you walk out of the Octagon after a fight, it's a lot easier to walk back in right away, then take some time off and then hang out.

Relax.

It's like going a war and then leaving the war and then trying to come back into the war.

It's it's almost easier to stay there.

You know, there's a reason why guys don't come back to visit their family in between the war.

Do you think some of that might be due to the waker just because if you don't, I guess balloon up right away and get really heavy.

Stay a little later than you usually would wake up for.

The second camp might be a bit easier, to be honest.

My way Cut's not too bad.

One of the reasons why it took me so long to keep fighting consistently was my neck.

I was having some some neck issues that were just slowing me down every time I would have, ah, training practice.