It was after that latter defeat against Hernandez in 2018 that had Dariush seriously questioning if he wanted to continue fighting.
“As a fighter, if you don’t have the chin to take a punch — if you can’t take a punch and your chin doesn’t hold up — what’s the point?” Dariush said ahead of his return to action at UFC Fight Night in Wichita on March 9. “You can have all the skills in the world, if you get hit and you go down there’s no point in trying to fight. It’s not your place anymore. It’s not your home anymore.”
While he was contemplating the possible end of his career, Dariush decided to let his body heal before making any rash decisions.
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During that time off, he visited with his physician to diagnose a constant problem in his neck that transformed his training camps into a miserable experience as he was trying to gut through every practice while suffering through serious pain.
“We got the MRI and everything checked out and he said it was a lot worse than I thought it was,” Dariush revealed. “With that being said, ever since I started working on getting my neck healthier, I’ve been able to spar more, I’m not constantly in pain and with little things like that, you’d be amazed how much it helps.”
According to Dariush, he was diagnosed with a bulging disc as well as severe nerve damage, which was causing him so much pain that it prevented him from properly preparing for any of his upcoming fights.
It seems the nagging injury also explained why he struggled to take punches because every shot that landed flush sent reverberations through his entire body thanks to the damage in his neck.
So for the past year, the 29-year old lightweight contender has worked tirelessly to nurse his neck back to full health, which in turn allowed him to properly prepare for his fights.
The results of that hard work have already been witnessed after Dariush returned to action last November and earned a unanimous decision win over Thiago Moises.
