UFC: Beneil Dariush slams Zhang Weili’s ‘sorry excuse’ that booing distracted her in Rose Namajunas loss
- ‘People want to boo me, let them boo me,’ says Dariush, who was jeered throughout UFC 262 co-main event win over Tony Ferguson
- ‘That’s a terrible excuse. I get it, it’s not an easy thing to deal with, but as an athlete, that’s your responsibility’
Beneil Dariush knows full well what it is like to be the pantomime villain at a sold-out UFC pay-per-view.
The new No 3-ranked lightweight was jeered throughout his UFC 262 co-main event against fan favourite Tony Ferguson in Houston last weekend, much like Zhang Weili last month when she fought American Rose Namajunas in Florida.
While Iranian-born American Dariush had the last laugh with a dominant decision win, Chinese star Zhang gave up her title in a first-round loss via head-kick KO.
“I’m going to be honest with you, I think that’s a sorry excuse. That’s a very bad excuse,” Dariush said in an interview on Jimmy Smith’s Unlocking The Cage radio show on SiriusXM.
“People are afraid to pick who they want to root for. People are all ‘Dariush is so nice, I don’t know why he’s being booed’. Who cares? People want to boo me, let them boo me.