Benoit Saint Denis isn’t getting paid by the hour. Mere minutes after Bo Nickal kicked off UFC 322’s pay-per-view with a highlight-reel head-kick knockout, French lightweight Saint Denis tore through Beneil Dariush in just 16 seconds Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
After stumbling to the floor off an early leg kick, Saint Denis rose to his feet and blasted Dariush with a left hand over the top, sending the veteran face-first to the canvas. One more right hand was all “BSD” needed to secure the sixth-fastest knockout in UFC lightweight history.
“You know what I’m chasing for,” Saint Denis said post-fight. “I’m on a great road and there’s two things I have in my mind — the BMF and the lightweight belt, and I’m going to chase that.”
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Saint Denis (16-3, 1 NC) has now won three consecutive fights via stoppages in 2025 since losing back-to-back bouts at the hands of Dustin Poirier and Renato Moicano last year.
Dariush (23-6-1), a longtime lightweight contender, has dropped three of his past four contests, all of which ended in first-round knockouts. At age 36, with seven KO/TKO losses now on his career odometer, Saturday’s result may have spelled the end of Dariush’s time as a top contender.
