Tony Ferguson wants to show the world that he’s not done yet. That he’s still got it. He will get his chance of proving those in UFC 262 when he faces the rampaging Beneil Dariush. Ferguson is ranked fifth in the UFC lightweight division, while Dariush is ninth, and could move up multiple notches with a win over the former champion. Check out our preview of this fight below.
Ferguson, the former interim champion of the lightweight division, is looking to get out of a hole. For the first time in his career, the 37-year-old Ferguson has suffered consecutive losses, as he got defeated by Justin Gaethje via TKO and Charles Oliveira via unanimous decision in fights last year. Before falling prey to Gaethje, El Cucuy had a 12-fight win streak, including wins against the likes of Donald Cerrone, Anthony Pettis, Kevin Lee, and Edson Barboza. A wrestler, Ferguson will still look to impress the judges with his striking in this upcoming fight against Darius. For one, he has a 76-inch reach — four inches longer than Dariush’s. He’s also landing 5.46 significant strikes per minute in the UFC. Among active lightweights, Ferguson is third overall in strikes landed. His body of work on the mat is solid, too, having nailed nine submission wins against just a submission loss to go with his 12-1 knockout record.
Dariush is on a hot streak, as he’s won all of his past six fights. In the most recent one, he scored a split decision win over Diego Ferreira last February. Prior to that, he pulled off a fantastic spinning back first TKO win over Scott Holtzman and a TKO victory against Drakkar Klose. Dariush must really be feeling good about himself with the streak he is having and the manners with which he’s stitched those wins together. But this fight against Ferguson is also expected to be the toughest of his career. Then again, Dariush could possibly be facing a much-diminished version of Ferguson, who could also be fighting for relevance in the UFC when these two fighters touch gloves in UFC 262. Dariush’s ground game shouldn’t be underestimated here, as he has eight submission wins and just a submission loss in his MMA career. So far in his time in the UFC, Dariush has averaged 2.03 takedowns per 15 minutes to go with an 81 takedown defense percentage.
