Beneil Dariush jokes he will try and “avoid” Justin Gaethje fight as long as possible like Darren Till did with Yoel Romero

Beneil Dariush has taken notice of what Darren Till said about Yoel Romero, and he believes he has the same thing going on with Justin Gaethje.

In the lead-up to UFC 249 in May of 2020, Dariush was a big part of Gaethje’s training camp to prepare for Tony Ferguson. Since then, the two have become good friends and have trained together. However, the ninth-ranked lightweight, jokes he will be avoiding the Gaethje fight as long as possible.

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“The only guy in the lightweight division I would not fight is Rafael dos Anjos. He’s family to me. The thing with Justin is, Justin is a very good friend,” Dariush said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “You know how Darren Till always jokes about not wanting to fight Yoel Romero, I have that feeling with Justin. When I train with Justin, you have to understand his power is unreal. I’m going to avoid that fight as long as I can. Who knows, eventually it will probably happen.”

Although Dariush jokes he will try and avoid the Gaethje fight, he knows the two will likely end up meeting. If Dariush beats Tony Ferguson at UFC 262 on Saturday, he will enter the top-six and possibly the top-five of the division so there are only a handful of opponents he could face. Gaethje, as well, is without a fight so perhaps he faces Dariush if he gets his hand raised.

Beneil Dariush enters his UFC 262 co-main event fight against Tony Ferguson riding a six-fight winning streak. He’s coming off a decision win over Diego Ferreira and before that, scored highlight-reel KO wins over Scott Holtzman and Drakkar Klose. During his run, he also beat Drew Dober, Frank Camacho, and Thiago Moises, but Ferguson will arguably be the toughest opponent of his career.

What do you make of Beneil Dariush joking he will try and avoid Justin Gaethje as long as possible?