Beneil Dariush's scheduled opponent, Manuel Torres, has pulled out of their lightweight bout at UFC 327 due to injury, leaving the veteran fighter awaiting a replacement. The event, set for April 11 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, features a title fight doubleheader headlining the card. UFC officials are working to find a new matchup for Dariush on short notice.
UFC 327, scheduled for April 11 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, has suffered a setback with the withdrawal of Manuel Torres from his main card fight against Beneil Dariush. Torres, ranked No. 14 in the lightweight division, was forced out due to an undisclosed injury, as revealed by Dariush on a recent episode of the OverDogs Podcast.
Dariush, 36, shared details about the cancellation, noting the fight had been postponed multiple times—from an original February date to March 7, and finally to April 11—possibly due to Torres' injury issues. "[Torres] pulled out, he’s injured," Dariush said. "So, I guess that fight’s not happening anymore. So I’m waiting actually for a new opponent…All the best to him, I hope he recovers quickly and gets back into the fight game. I'm just waiting on an opponent, and the only guy I saw that’s really available is Paddy [Pimblett]."
This would have marked Dariush's return since a 16-second knockout loss to Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 322. A potential bout with Paddy Pimblett, who recently lost an interim lightweight title fight to Justin Gaethje at UFC 324 and is currently on vacation in the Maldives, appears unlikely on such short notice.
Torres, 30, nicknamed "El Loco," earned his UFC contract on the 2021 Dana White’s Contender Series. He started with three first-round finishes before a knockout loss to Ignacio Bahamondes at UFC 306. Last year, he rebounded with a sub-two-minute stoppage of Drew Dober at UFC Mexico and a knockout of Grant Dawson, entering the rankings at No. 14 while earning Performance of the Night bonuses for all his UFC wins.
The card, now potentially featuring 12 fights without a replacement, is headlined by Jiří Procházka vs. Carlos Ulberg for the vacant light heavyweight title and Joshua Van vs. Tatsuro Taira for the flyweight championship in Van's first defense. Other matchups include Dominick Reyes vs. Johnny Walker, Curtis Blaydes vs. Josh Hokit, Tatiana Suarez vs. Lupita Godinez, Azamat Murzakanov vs. Paulo Costa, Cub Swanson vs. Nate Landwehr, Kevin Holland vs. Randy Brown, Patricio Pitbull vs. Aaron Pico, Mateusz Gamrot vs. Esteban Ribovics, Kelvin Gastelum vs. Vicente Luque, and Nazim Sadykhov vs. MarQuel Mederos.
