Craig Jones recently took the time to break down the Charles Oliveira v Beneil Dariush fight that served as the co-main event of UFC 289 on June 10th, 2023. There was a lot of hype surrounding the fight and neither man disappointed once the cage doors closed. This is hardly surprising given who was fighting though, as Oliveira in particular is known for having an exciting style that often leads to finishes and rapid exchanges. Jones actually alluded to this before he broke down his fight against Dariush:
“To be a fan of Charles Oliveira is a very traumatic experience every time he fights. He goes from getting dropped to getting reversed in grappling exchanges, to almost knocking the guy out to almost submitting the guy. These things happen every fight. If you have high blood pressure, I recommend taking your blood pressure medication before watching Oliveira fight.”
It lived up to all of the hype in the end as it was one of the most exciting fights of the night, and Oliveira ended up winning a ‘Performance of the Night’ bonus as a result of the skills he displayed while finishing Dariush. Although there were a few striking exchanges too, Jones steered clear of them and stuck to his specialty of grappling when discussing the fight. There was plenty for him to dissect though, as both Oliveira and Dariush are incredible grapplers:
“I will say Dariush did a good job on top of negating some of Oliveira’s bottom-game attacks. The problem is, once Oliveira begins this offensive cycle it takes so long as you sort of dodge and block one attack to the other, to get your own attack going. We saw Dariush was ultimately able to use some toreando style positions and even try to enter into a kneecut ground and pound position. But every time he would do it, Oliveira would take a scoop grip and threaten the deep half guard.”
Perhaps the only downside to the Charles Oliveira v Beneil Dariush fight is that it was over in just one round, something that Craig Jones seems to agree with. There’s an easy fix to that of course, as rematches are not uncommon at the highest levels of professional MMA and Jones is definitely on board for watching more of these two in the future:
“I would love to see this fight again one day. Who knows if it’ll ever happen, I’d love to see more of these grappling exchanges played out as those rounds progressed because I do really believe Dariush’s grappling was effective on top. He was just stuck in Oliveira’s offensive cycle as he was sorta shutting down one attack, shutting down another attack, before attempting attacks of his own.”
The full video of Craig Jones breaking down the Charles Oliveira v Beneil Dariush fight at UFC 289 was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of B-Team Jiu-Jitsu: