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“No one has really pushed him around, even in his loss,” he continued, citing Klose’s lone setback to David Teymur at UFC 218. “He hasn’t been pushed around, so I like this kind of fight. I like fighting guys who are calculating and aggressive, so I want to go out there and perform.
“I want to show this guy that ‘as good as you are, I’m better in all those situations.’”
For Dariush, his current string of strong results can be traced back to two factors: increased experience and a return to full health, which had previously limited his ability to train as he did in the past.
The recently married lightweight competed at a high level in Brazilian jiu-jitsu before transitioning to mixed martial arts and he didn’t really go all-in on MMA until after his third fight. He reached the UFC quickly and has fought an impressive schedule over the last six years, competing 10 times in his first three years on the roster and twice per year every year since.
And where some fighters are quick to point to injuries that hampered their training or limited their performance in the cage, the quiet lightweight actually went in the other direction, refusing to admit to himself that it was persistent neck issues and referred pain in his back that kept him from performing to the best of his abilities.
Once he finally stepped back, admitted there was an issue, and took the time to address it, Dariush has returned to being a dangerous threat in the ultra-competitive lightweight ranks.
“It was a big struggle for me just admitting I was injured,” began Dariush, who acknowledged he had never really taken the time to sit down and absorb everything he’d accomplished or let his body recover properly during the first several years of his UFC career. “Fixing my neck has really changed the game for me because I was able to get back and train the way I used to.