Beneil Dariush: Fighter Study
A Study of Beneil Dariush last 4 fights. Not the Tony Ferguson fight for obvious reasons.
Striking
In all his fights, Dariush places all his weight on his lead foot when in stance.
This allows him to lean back and head whip on his left body kick.
And pull back during extended striking exchanges.
The habit of pulling back cost him in the Oliveira fight. Oliveira was able to push Dariush to the back half of his stance and head kick him.
On the feet, Dariush has a left body kick, good left overhand and a right jab. He doesn’t really feint or build into his offense. But he has confidence which allows him to gut through long exchanges.
Not really part of the study, but something I found weird. Dariush puts his right hand behind his back after landing a right hook.
Tsarukyan vs. Dariush : Post Fight
Tsarukyan fighting with his lead hand extended. A habit we looked at on a previous study.
Dariush kicking Tsarukyan’s wrist early. We don’t know how this could have played out since the fight ended a few moments later, but its always good to see strong grapplers kicking the wrist.
Side note: When the lead hand is extended in an open stance matchup, it’s very difficult to Saenchai catch the opponent’s kick or even Dutch block. As Volkanovski found out since he’s always probing with the lead hand in any stance match up.
Dariush kicking the inside leg.
Typically this is dangerous to do as a southpaw since its easy for the opponent to check since all they have to do is turn the lead leg in.
However, this was a good tool to use against Tsarukyan since he would disengage after each hand fight. By disengaging it made Dariush’s low kicks easier to land since Tsarukyan is taking his weight off the lead foot momentarily.
Tsarukyan sneaking the jab through.
Dariush kept a high guard while moving forward this made him an easy target for the Tsarukyan jab.
The ending sequence was Tsarukyan entering with a double jab rear hook, then throwing a rear hand after showing the knee.
The knee in the clinch can force the opponent to lean back as Dariush does here. This was an off beat combination since the rear hand comes straight after the knee.
Grappling
Let’s take a look at some cool grappling sequences and not so cool ones.
Dariush escape crucifix entry attempt by re-establishing his BASE.
For those that are new, BASE is the feet in relation to the ground.
Dariush hits an outside trip along the fence and cartwheels into half guard after getting elevated by a butterfly hook.
Dariush attacking legs to get back up.
Attacking legs (more specifically the knee reap) to get back up is a good thing to use in the middle of the cage since it will force the opponent to turn and potentially give up their back.
Breakdown of a cool scramble from round 1 of Dariush vs Gamrot.
Dariush punching the ground against Charles Oliveira from top position.
This was very funny but also weird that Dariush was baffled by the movement from bottom of Oliveira.
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