UFC: Beneil Dariush gets second-straight walk-off KO with spinning back fist finish of Scott Holtzman
- Dariush racks up fifth win in a row and puts stacked UFC lightweight division on notice
- The 31-year-old suggests giving any bonus money to his opponent as he is ineligible after missing weight
Beneil Dariush put a stacked lightweight division on notice after a second-straight walk-off KO, this time dropping Scott Holtzman in the first round at UFC Vegas 6.
“Hot Sauce” Holtzman (14-4) had never been finished, but Dariush (19-4) put him down with a spinning back fist 22 seconds before the buzzer, and surely will get a top 10 opponent next.
It was just the eighth finish in UFC history with that particular move, and a man with one of the seven others, Paul Felder, was gushing in his praise of the 31-year-old on commentary.
“My friend’s son, Billy, sent me a message on Instagram and he was like, ‘Hey, you should try to knock him out with a spinning back fist. I’ve been playing the video game and in the game you do it really well’. And I was like, ‘I’ll think about it, buddy’. He goes, ‘Try it two times. If it doesn’t work, it’s OK’. And here we are, so, Bill, I love you buddy,” Dariush said after the fight.
“I do it a lot in training, I used to do the spinning back kick a lot, but then again I was wild. As you get older, you try to clean things up. If you watch the beginning of the fight, I’m trying to be sharp with my boxing, hands up, don’t drop your hands, slip, counter … Don’t get wild. For maybe the first minute and a half, I did that and then, after that, it was just old Beneil.
It was highlight reel stuff but the Iranian-born Assyrian-American was ineligible for a post-fight bonus because he missed weight, and suggested any extra cash go to his opponent.
