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Ranked lightweights kick off the highly anticipated UFC 322 principal card as Beneil Dariush (23-6-1) takes on Benoit Saint-Denis (15-3, one no-contest). It’s time to proceed our UFC odds series with a Dariush-Saint-Denis prediction and pick.
Dariush, 36, is scheduled to conclude his 2025 campaign with a second fight after going without one in 2024. The divisional mainstay snapped a two-fight skid with a win over fan favorite Renato Moicano in June to take care of his top-10 rating within the UFC lightweight division.
Saint-Denis, 29, can be coming off a win, submitting the surging Mauricio Ruffy within the second round of the UFC Paris co-main event in September. The win was his second consecutive after going 0-2 in 2024 to get himself back on the right track within the ever-competitive weight class.
Listed here are the UFC 322 Odds, courtesy of DraftKings.
UFC 322 Odds: Beneil Dariush-Benoit Saint-Denis Odds
Beneil Dariush: +150
Benoit Saint-Denis: -180
Over 1.5 rounds: -166
Under 1.5 rounds: +130
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Why Beneil Dariush Will Win
Beneil Dariush has quite literally been rejecting up-and-coming title challengers longer than Benoit Saint-Denis has been within the UFC. Saint-Denis definitely looks like a juggernaut with renewed momentum, but so did Drakkar Klose, Drew Dober, Thiago Moises and Mateusz Gamrot before they bumped into Dariush.
When Saint-Denis wins, he steamrolls people. He would appear poised to achieve this against a 36-year-old Dariush, but Saint-Denis tends to win fights by submission. Dariush, a former Brazilian jiu-jitsu no-gi world champion, has only been submitted once in his 30-fight skilled MMA profession.
Although Dariush is visibly slowing down with age, he’ll still be the more technical striker than Saint-Denis. Saint-Denis’ biggest weakness continues to be his nonexistent striking defense, which nearly each of his recent opponents have been able to use. The last time Dariush faced a grappler who couldn’t out-strike him, he battered and floored Gamrot to brush the judges’ rating cards.
Why Benoit Saint-Denis Will Win
The previous few years of Dariush’s profession have clearly taken a toll on him. Once often known as an elite grappler able to engaging in back-and-forth brawls, Dariush now enters this fight having been knocked down in each of his last three fights.
At 36, Dariush’s movements have slowed considerably, and his chin has nearly fallen off a cliff. His biggest concern has at all times been his durability against powerful strikers, but Dariush is now coming off a fight through which he was knocked down by Renato Moicano, who entered that matchup with no previous knockdown as a light-weight.
With the grappling seemingly evening out on paper, Saint-Denis figures to have the sting on the feet. Dariush is the more technical striker, but he now not has the speed and volume to maintain up with Saint-Denis on the feet, who has proven his power as a knockout threat.
Final Beneil Dariush-Benoit Saint-Denis Prediction & Pick
Dariush has a transparent path to victory, but that is Saint-Denis’ fight to lose. While Dariush tends to out-grapple most of his opponents, particularly other wrestling-heavy fighters, his declining durability is just too much of a difficulty to overlook against Saint-Denis, who has three knockouts in his seven UFC victories.
Dariush is the cleaner striker on film, but that never matters to Saint-Denis, who is sort of never willing to take a step back. In consequence, the ‘God of War’ lands nearly two more significant strikes per minute at a better clip.
At this point in his profession, Dariush remains to be a capable striker, but he almost exclusively looks to wrestle his technique to victory. That remains to be possible, but Saint-Denis will likely be the marginally greater fighter who should match his underrated strength. No one has controlled Saint-Denis for greater than 19 percent of a 15-minute UFC fight.
Dariush has an extended history of success against other grapplers, but Saint-Denis has a transparent path to breach the highest 10 of the division if he believes in his striking. The Frenchman has elite ending instincts and will give you the chance to shut the show if he hurts Dariush the identical way each of his last three opponents have.
Final Beneil Dariush-Benoit Saint-Denis Prediction & Pick: Benoit Saint-Denis (-180), Under 1.5 (+130)
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