‘Crank’ ready to battle formidable opponent

Frank “The Crank” Camacho will ride on the momentum of his TKO win in a previous fight when he takes on Beneil ‘’Benny’’ Dariush in the UFC Fight Night 162 this Saturday in Singapore.

Camacho stopped (punches) Germany’s Nick “Sergeant” Hein during the UFC Fight Night 153 in Stockholm, Sweden to start the year with a big win and earn his second victory in five matches under the Ultimate Fighting Championship promotion.

“I feel the advantage I have right now is I just fought a few months ago and riding off great momentum,” said Camacho, who saw action in the octagon cage last June 1.

The Iran-born, California resident Dariush last fought in March this year at UFC Fight Night 146 in Wichita, Kansas where he won against Drew Dober via submission (arm bar) in the second round. Majority of Dariush’s 16 victories were via submission/decisions due to his Brazilian Jiu-jitsu background (black belt), while Camacho started his MMA career as a standup fighter before developing his ground game. The 31-year-old Camacho has recorded 17 KOs out of the 22 wins he posted, while Dariush registered only 3.

“My fighting style gives Beneil issues. He, however, is a very smart and technical fighter. It will come down to who implements his game,” said the Marianas pride, who arrived in Singapore last weekend after completing his training camp with Team Oyama in California.

“The training camp was amazing. Camp at Team Oyama the second time around is better than the first. Conditioning was the big focus for this camp. I feel good about it. Game plan is on point,” Camacho said.

The Dariush-Camacho lightweight duel is one of the 10 supporting bouts to the main event—which will feature American Ben Askren going up against Brazilian Demian Maia at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang.

“You can expect to see a perfect storm balance of the old chaotic ‘Crank’ and new and improved calculated ‘Crank’ in Singapore,” Camacho said.

Incidentally, the Guam-born, Saipan-raised Camacho had his UFC debut in Singapore in 2017 when he earned a Fight of the Night honors after battling China’s Jinglian Li. Camacho went on to get Fight of the Night awards in his next two bouts (versus Australia’s Damien Brown and Dober) before closing out his first four-fight contract with UFC in September 2018 by challenging Geoff Neal.