Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush are going to meet in one of the most important fights in the recent memory of the UFC lightweight division at UFC 289 on June 10th, 2023. The pair were originally scheduled to meet just one month earlier at UFC 288, as the co-main event serving underneath the return of legendary MMA fighter Henry Cejudo. Unfortunately for fans, the fight had to be rescheduled at the very last minute when Oliveira suffered an injury in training that limited his ability to prepare properly.
While fighters often suffer injuries in training and still continue through the camp until fight day, it makes sense that Oliveira would want to be in the best shape possible for this fight. Oliveira is coming into the fight with Dariush at UFC 289 off the back of a loss to Islam Makhachev, his first since all the way back in 2017. He has been dominating the division ever since then, submitting and knocking out almost everyone who crossed his path and winning the lightweight title. At the same time, Dariush has also been putting together a fantastic winning streak that extends back to 2018.
Dariush is undefeated in his last 8 fights and he’s looking to make a final push towards a title-shot in the division with a win over Oliveira. This is actually the third time that they have been booked to compete against each other, with the first time coming in 2020 and before Oliveira won the belt. The stakes would have been quite high back then, but they’re even higher this time around as both men sit comfortably within the top five of the division. Both men are BJJ black belts who are known for their fantastic grappling, and how well they’re able to translate that to MMA. While they’re also talented strikers and will no doubt trade plenty of shots on the feet, fans can expect lots of high-level grappling exchanges when Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush meet at UFC 289.
