Beneil Dariush is fighting for the lord.

After earning a big win over Renato Moicano in his last outing, the perennial lightweight title contender returns to the Octagon this Saturday night at UFC 322 for a high-stakes scrap against Benoit Saint-Denis.

Before he goes toe-to-toe with the ‘God of War’ on MMA’s biggest stage, Dariush recently spoke about preaching in the name of Jesus during a trip to Abu Dhabi, where roughly 75% of the total population is Muslim.

“I did preach the name of Jesus in a Muslim majority country, but this is not like—I have genuine friends who are missionaries and … in different countries where if they do that in public, they would be killed,” Dariush said during his UFC 322 media day interview. “So I understand it’s not an easy thing to do, but it was not—sometimes we put too much on it, and I don’t want that to take away from the true people that, like, spread the gospel in dangerous areas.

“I was never in danger. … Everybody actually was very nice to me afterwards. They just wanted to make sure they clarified, ‘Listen, we believe in Jesus as a prophet and this and that,’ but there was never any danger, you know what I mean?”​

“My legacy is Christ. I don’t really care what people look back [at],” Dariush added. “I did this for a lot of selfish reasons because I just love fighting, and … I hope what—even though I came in with the wrong motivation, I hope that people will remember that the reason I fought was because I have a love for the Lord.”​

On Friday, Dariush weighed in at 157.2 pounds, 1.2 pounds over the limit for his non-title bout with Saint-Denis. The fight will move forward as scheduled, but ‘Benny’ will surrender 20% of his fight purse.

Craig Pekios

Craig Pekios is a freelance writer born and raised in Bettendorf, IA. Joining LowKick MMA in May 2022, Craig has more than 4,000 articles published that focus on the world of MMA and boxing, including news, event previews, results, analysis, and op-eds.