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#5 Beneil Dariush vs. Frank Camacho
There’s some curious booking behind this one that I don’t really understand; Beneil Dariush is a borderline top-fifteen contender at Lightweight, and after a trio of disappointing performances that saw him go winless, he seems to be back to his best now, recently submitting Drew Dober in a fantastic showing.
Frank Camacho meanwhile is coming off a win – a KO of Nick Hein – but he’s also lost more UFC fights than he’s won and while he’s exciting to watch, there’s nothing to suggest that he’ll ever become more than a fun brawler inside the Octagon. With that in mind, this just seems like a gimme fight for Dariush in my eyes.
Dariush is one of the strongest grapplers in the Lightweight division; a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, he’s been able to submit the likes of Anthony Rocco Martin and Dober, and comfortably outgrappled good mat-workers in their own right such as Diego Ferreira, Jim Miller and Thiago Moises.
On the feet, he’s steadily improved too – he packs a lot of power, as we saw when he KO’d James Vick, and under Rafael Cordeiro he’s developed a strong pressure kickboxing game. Dariush’s main weakness is a lack of natural athleticism – he’s just not the quickest or most explosive fighter, and that’s gotten him into trouble before, most notably in his losses to Edson Barboza and Alexander Hernandez.
I don’t see that as an issue for him in this fight, though. Camacho is a tough brawler, but he’s not the kind of explosive athlete that Barboza is and I’d actually suggest he’s no quicker than Dariush, either. Dariush’s chin has been cracked before which gives Camacho a puncher’s chance, but the fact that he struggled in the grappling portions of his own fight with Dober should mean Dariush will have few problems with him on the mat.
As long as Dariush can avoid being drawn into a brawl here – Camacho’s chin is stronger than his and he hits hard – then this should be his fight to lose. Focus on the takedown as much as he did against Dober and I think it should be a routine first or second-round submission for him.
The Pick: Dariush via first-round submission
