Sherdog’s Top 10: Rising Stars, 2015 First Edition

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10. Beneil Dariush
Division: Lightweight
Record: 11-1 (5-1 UFC)
Age: 26

The last two years have been good to Kings MMA and its head coach, Rafael Cordeiro. Fabricio Werdum captured the interim heavyweight title; Rafael dos Anjos destroyed Anthony Pettis to claim the lightweight belt; and then Werdum overcame the odds to take out Cain Velasquez and unify the UFC heavyweight championship. With those accomplishments, the former Chute Boxe trainer put a stamp on the second phase of his career and cemented himself as one of the sport’s premier coaches.

Dariush, an Assyrian Christian born in Iran, is Cordeiro’s prized up-and-comer. He is an elite Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner, with a black belt from Romulo Barral and a long list of medals to his name. Far from being a one-dimensional ground specialist, however, Dariush is an increasingly slick striker with a vicious southpaw kicking game and the wrestling chops to force his opponent to tangle with his venomous grappling on the mat.

Since a loss to Ramsey Nijem in April 2014, Dariush has rattled off four consecutive wins over increasingly imposing competition. He arm-triangled Tony Martin in August, took a decision from Carlos Diego Ferreira and dominated Daron Cruickshank en route to a second-round rear-naked choke. A decision win over Jim Miller in April was far easier in practice than it looked on paper, and the UFC rewarded Dariush by booking him against top-10 lightweight Michael Johnson on Aug. 8. Between the elite coaching at Kings MMA, his grappling skills and his obvious improvements, Dariush seems like a lock to hang tough with the stacked lightweight division’s best fighters.

Number 9 » The basis for the young Brazilian’s success is his next-level striking repertoire. He is, simply put, one of the most exciting young fighters in the UFC today. He excels at working his way into the pocket, drawing out a response from his opponent and then dropping counter combinations that he punctuates with vicious left hooks to the liver. Pace and output are hallmarks of his game, and no foe has thus far been able to stand up to the relentless violence of his offensive onslaught. He is hittable, to be sure, but even if his defense never improves, he will still be one of the all-time great action fighters. If it does get better, he looks like a potential future champion.