Alexander Volkanovski has reflected on a period of his career that may have inadvertently derailed one of the lightweight division’s most deserving contenders, and he is not entirely comfortable with the role he played.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Volkanovski addressed the timing of his champ-champ pursuit at 155 pounds and its likely impact on Beneil Dariush, who had built an eight-fight winning streak within four years and appeared to be next in line for a title shot before Volkanovski entered the picture.
“I really do like Dariush. I feel for him. He should have fought for titles, and then that was when I obviously deserved my chance at champ-champ. I ended up taking where he probably would have been.
He would have been backup, he would have been next if it wasn’t me, and then sh*t, I feel like it’s my fault that he never got that title fight. He’s a good dude, too, and definitely deserved it at that time. But obviously people say I deserved it, and that’s a fight that ended up happening. He was meant to pretty much get it after that, but he ended up losing and sort of went south from there.”
Dariush’s winning streak was snapped when he suffered a first-round TKO loss to Charles Oliveira in June 2023. He has gone 1-3 in his last four outings since then and is set to face Quillan Salkilld in the co-main event at UFC Perth this weekend, a fight that Dariush himself has acknowledged could be his last in the UFC.