Rafael Fiziev Calls Out Beneil Dariush After UFC 311 Shake-Up: "When will you be ready to go?"

Rafael Fiziev has been medically cleared to return to the cage and he has eyes on one of the more tenured members of the UFC's 155-pound ranks. Fiziev has not competed in close to a year and a half since sustaining a leg injury in the second round of his UFC Fight Night bout against Mateusz Gamrot in September 2023. Now that his ACL is optimally repaired, Fiziev is hungry to return and called out an individual who was left without a dance partner at UFC 311.

That individual in question was Beneil Dariush who was initially supposed to clash with Renato Moicano on the UFC's first pay-per-view offering of the year. That was until a last-minute back injury to lightweight title challenger Arman Tsarukyan created a vacancy that Moicano took which left Dariush without an opponent.

Taking to his social media to offer up Dariush a chance to compete sooner rather than later to salvage things in the wake of his Jan. 18 fight falling out, Fiziev said:

"Unfortunate about your fight cancellation, @beneildariush. I'm also still without a fight. When will you be ready to go? It'd be great to share the octagon with you."

Check out Rafael Fiziev's social media call out of Beneil Dariush below

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Rafael Fiziev's other call out of a ranked lightweight

Rafael Fiziev has also turned his attention to his last opponent as someone he would like to have his return bout against. The TKO injury-based loss to Mateusz Gamrot led to the No.11 ranked lightweight's first-ever stretch of back-to-back defeats in his professional mixed martial arts career.

The 31-year-old seems keen to have a sequel affair against the number eight-ranked lightweight, as Fiziev mentioned in recent weeks to Submission Radio. Fiziev stated that after he had surgery following the injury he sustained against Gamrot, he reached out to his manager about wanting a rematch.

The want for the rematch seemed more rooted in a desire to face someone Fiziev called an elite-level grappler than it seemed mindful of redemption for the first fight. 'Ataman' quipped about how he wanted to feel the kind of grappling pressure that Gamrot would bring and wanted to check himself against someone with a notable wrestling base inside of the octagon.

Whether it's a clash with Mateusz Gamrot or Beneil Dariush, presumably many will be excited to see the return of Fiziev regardless of who his adversary ends up being.