FPJ x Exclusive | From Iran Roots To UFC Glory: MMA Veteran Beneil Dariush Opens Up On Faith, Fighting And Life Beyond The Octagon

UFC lightweight contender Beneil Dariush opened up in a candid and wide-ranging conversation, offering insights that went far beyond the Octagon. In an exclusive interaction with The Free Press Journal, Dariush reflected on his early life in Iran, the realities of growing up as part of a Christian Assyrian community, his rise in mixed martial arts, and his views on global politics, sharing how these experiences have shaped both his career and character.

Excerpts...

1) You were born in Iran and moved to the United States when you were young. Can you tell us about your experiences growing up in Iran as a Christian?

I was born in Iran and lived in a small village. It was very comfortable in the village because we were treated very well. But you know, overall in the country there was always some persecution towards Christian Assyrians, so my family thought it would be best that we would come to America.

2) Looking back at that journey, from Iran to becoming a UFC fighter, what moments stand out the most for you?

I was a kid doing farm work, I was climbing trees, playing with my friends and I never even dreamed of professional sports. When I was young, I don’t know exactly what the UFC was. It’s a miracle by God, it’s one of those things where God had to move things in all the right places for everything to happen.

3) There’s a lot happening around Iran right now as tensions in the region are escalating. What are your thoughts on the whole situation?

To be honest, I’m cautiously optimistic and when I say cautiously it's because unfortunately regime changes never worked well in the Middle East. But I’m hoping this time it'll be different, because most Persians I would say did not want Ayatollah. When there’s war, we hope for the best but it’s typically not what happens, but I still hope and pray for something great come out of this. But right now we’re just waiting anxiously for the war to end and to see where the chips will fall.

4) Can you tell us about the perception of the Iranian people amid this ongoing conflict scenario?

So it’s not so simple, there’s a lot of people who want the regime change, I would say that majority want the regime change. There's many different types of people in Iran, for example if you look at Tehran, it’s much more modern, westernize and liberal, so they want this regime change I would say then anybody, but at the same time they’re less religious. There’s other parts of Iran, that are more religious and they’re more I would say religiously conservative. So whoever is going to be the next leader has to understand certain subtleties of leading a diverse group of people. You got to have a leader who is fair and at the same time going to have a high level of code of conduct.

5) What are your thoughts on US President Donald Trump?

I voted for him and campaigned for him. I think he's doing well with everything on his plate. I didn’t expect the thing with Iran to happen to be honest with you. I didn’t expect him to attack Iran, but I know it’s been escalating for years and it came to a point where there really wasn’t much of a choice. In the last term I was very impressed so I would give him “A” but this term I would give him a “B” and the reason I give him a “B” is because of two things. I was hoping he would essentially cut down most of the government spending and then the other thing was the ‘Epstein Files.’ I had hope that they would be released but we still don’t really have anyone and no one’s been arrested, so those things I think really hurt his campaign so far.

6) Have you ever met Trump? Can you share any personal experience you had with him?

No, I haven’t met him personally. My friend Uros got to speak with him on a phone call. Uros was having some visa issues, and he told Trump he wants to go back home to Serbia. So in the end, everything got taken care of for Uros, which is really cool, and he is hoping to fight in his home country of Serbia soon.

7) Speaking about Trump, The UFC has planned a White House card, what are your thoughts on the fights taking place? We got some great matchups: Ilia Topuria vs Justin Gaethje, Alex Pereira vs Ciryl Gane.

It’s a great card, I think sometimes people don’t speak highly of it, but I disagree. I think it’s a good card I think it’s a card that people should be happy about it. It’s weird that people don’t think the card is that good but I think it’s a great card. We got 4 of the greatest strikers: Ciryl Gane is one of the best strikers if not the best striker at Heavyweight. Then you have Alex Pereira whose legacy as far as striking goes could be all time great and then you have Ilia Topuria who has been a knockout artist and then you have Justin Gaethje you who has been that bonus machine, so I mean it’s a fantastic card. Even the undercard looks great, so I’m really looking forward for it.

8) This May, you’re scheduled to fight Quillan Salkilld in Australia. What excites you about that matchup?

He’s really good. He’s very well-rounded and skilled and I wanted to get out there and test him out to see if he’s as good as everybody is saying. I believe I’m better than him but I look forward to testing out and finding out.

9) When you’re preparing for a fight, what goes through your mind while building a game plan for your opponent?

Well these days it has to do a lot with studying your opponent. You build a game plan and then you also try to study yourself, where you can improve and continue to improve. As far as what goes through your head, I would say right now it’s just a desire to win that’s what goes through my head I want to win spectacularly and in a powerful way.

10) What are the technical aspects of MMA that you are keen to improve on, even after having trained for several years?

There’s not a single thing that I have perfected, there’s nothing that I’m perfect at, so every aspect of MMA I could still be better at. I’m just a beginner compared to a professional boxer. I’m a beginner compared to a professional kickboxer or beginner against these professional grapplers so I’m just still trying to basically grow. I don’t want to be a beginner, I want to be an intermediate guy right now.

11) Right now Charles Oliveira is the current BMF champion. Would you be interested in a rematch with Charles if the opportunity rises?

Yeah I think I would like that. I would like to redeem all my losses. But if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. My goal is to move back towards the top and try to redeem myself from my losses.

12) We have seen many fighters rely on trash talk to promote fights, but you seem to stay away from it. Is that a conscious choice?

I’m a devout Christian and it’s important to have integrity. Whatever comes out of my mouth has to be true, I have to believe that it’s true, if I don’t believe that and it’s coming out of my mouth, then I’m lying and that doesn’t sit with me. I won’t have peace with it when I speak to God, when I pray, when I read my Bible or when I’m meditating. So it’s not something I want my kids to see. I want them to see me being genuine and truly follow that.

13) Speaking about trash talking, we need to talk about Conor McGregor. What are your thoughts on him?

I feel he has got everything he could out of MMA. Financially he’s well off. He’s as famous as you could ever be. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a fighter more famous than him. Sometimes I feel like he would want to trade it all just to be back into the Octagon and performing and winning. It’s one of those things where sometimes it’s hard to walk away from the sport and I don’t know if he’s ready to walk away.

14) There’s a lot of discussion about a potential fight between Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria. How do you see that fight playing out?

I would definitely favour Islam. He’s very big now, it was really hard for him to get to 155 and he’s now much bigger and I think that will cause a problem. Islam is difficult to hit, so I think it would be a tough fight for Ilia. But you know I could be wrong as Ilia could find a way to win.

15) Your knockout win over Drakkar Klose became viral, especially with the reactions from commentators like Joe Rogan, Daniel Cormier, and Jon Anik. What do you remember most about that moment?

His corner was yelling that “I’m tired” and I didn’t agree with that. I remember saying to myself “I’m not tired, I worked so hard to be here,” so it kind of lit a fire in me because the game plan was to fight very smart. But then they kept screaming “he's tired, he's tired” and my knee was injured back then so I was trying to fight very conservative but for whatever reason I snapped and I forgot all about all that.

16) We have seen many MMA fighters calling out champions, former fighters during their post match interview. But you had once called out Elon Musk after your fight, can you tell about that story?

My wife was pregnant and we wanted to get this car for a while and it wasn’t coming and there was no updates as this was during COVID time so obviously there was a lot of issues going on. So I’m just waiting for my car and I just figured if I win maybe I’ll just call out Elon Musk. It was just a joke. But anyways I called him out after the fight and next morning I’m getting a bunch of calls and eventually they gave me a loaner car until my car was ready. So I had a free car from Elon for nine months.

17) Have you ever visited India or would you like to come here someday?

I would love to visit India. I’d love to get to know the people. I have friends who have been to India so I would like to take the opportunity when the time comes. To be honest I’d love to go back to Iran as well, so that’s another thing.

18) Have you ever watched any Bollywood movies?

When I was younger we watched a ton of Bollywood movies in Iran. There was a song called “Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja” so we knew a guy named Jimmy, so we would always give him a hard time and we would play that song. My family watched a lot of films and I would watch with them.

19) Since we are talking about India, how we can not talk speak on Cricket. Have you ever watched or played the sport?

I haven’t played, but I’ve watched it. It’s a little bit different than baseball. In cricket, you guys let the ball hit the ground, right, if I remember correctly? So that kind of threw me off, and I think that actually adds a whole other layer because the way you can bounce the ball off just changes the whole game, you know, and the angle, so I think one thing about cricket players is that you need to have great eyes and great reflexes.

20) Have you ever tried having Indian food?

I have tried Indian food quite often. Curry is my favorite, so anything with curry I’m in it. I also like Chicken Masala. So, curry with naan bread is my favorite. I think I eat pretty spicy.

21) Finally, what message would you like to share with your fans around the world and in India?

Thank you so much for your support. I’ve been in this sport now for 15 years maybe, I’ve been fighting and I get the kindest messages from all over the world and I just want to thank you guys for all these kind messages. I don’t know if I deserve it, but I’m grateful thank you.

Published on: Thursday, April 09, 2026, 10:15 PM IST