Beneil Dariush continued his winning ways at UFC 280 while vanquishing Mateusz Gamrot, who had quickly become one of the most talked about lightweights in the promotion.
Showcasing incredible takedown defense combined with a punishing style on the feet, Dariush never slowed down over all rounds as he continued to hammer Gamrot with strikes. Late in the third round, Dariush clubbed Gamrot with a huge overhand left that helped him secure the victory as he notched his eighth victory in a row in arguably the toughest division in the sport.
“I thought my takedown defense was going to be better,” Dariush said about his performance. “I had to do some funk. I relied a lot of funk rolls and jiu-jitsu.
“I’ll tell you one thing, I’m not a beggar. I fought whoever. I don’t care if I have to win another 10 fights before I get this belt, I will do it.”
An aggressive start from Gamrot led to a wild grappling exchange with Dariush as the fighters battled for position on the ground. The fighters eventually got back to the feet with Dariush unleashing some hard leg kicks and Gamrot countering with a takedown.
While Dariush continued to escape, Gamrot was constantly attacking the legs to drag the fight back down to the floor. Undeterred by the wrestling, Dariush was still throwing kicks to the legs and body when he attacked Gamrot on the feet.
As Dariush started to shrug off his opponent’s wrestling, he was able to open up more with his hands as he began establishing a good lead jab and then following with a power punch behind it. Dariush was also timing a nice knee up the middle to punish Gamrot to the body whenever the Polish welterweight ducked down to look for the takedown.
With the fight fading into the third round, Dariush was making Gamrot pay every time he decided to close the distance to try and get to his legs. Dariush continued to throw knees to the body and then snapping off punches to the head as well.
The defining strike came with just over a minute remaining as Dariush leveled Gamrot with a huge overhand left. Gamrot dropped to the ground before diving for another takedown to stave off a potential finish.
Still, the knockdown was the biggest strike in the fight as Dariush put on another stellar showcase while competing against a less established product in Gamrot. With the win, Dariush moves that much closer to title contention and he’ll be keeping a close eye on the UFC 280 main event between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev.
