Beneil Dariush has been selected as the winner of the 2024 Forest Griffin Community Award.
The Forest Griffin Community Award is presented annually during International Fight Week Honors. UFC CEO Dana White personally chooses the recipient to acknowledge fighters for their charitable work. The UFC announced Darish as the 2024 awardee for his contributions to the Shrama Foundation and Promise Child Ministries.
White praised Darish for his community service efforts, stating that he is an exemplary role model for other athletes on using their platform to support the less fortunate and advocate for causes close to their hearts. The award was presented to him with great honor.
The Shrama Foundation, which Darish supports, is a non-governmental organization that funds humanitarian projects to help Assyrian-Chaldean-Syrian communities in their homeland. Darish, who is Assyrian-American, began his involvement with the foundation in 2018 to raise funds and awareness for its mission. Additionally, in 2019, he started working with Promise Child Ministries and used his fight bonuses to support an orphanage in Haiti.
Darish responded to the news of his award with humility and gratitude.
“Thank you UFC and Dana White. I am grateful and humbled by this recognition. Praise the Lord!”
Becoming the fifth recipient of the Forrest Griffin Community Award starting in 2020, Darish joins previous winners Dustin Poirier, Max Holloway, Giga Chikadze, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He will be recognized at a Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Las Vegas on June 27th and will receive a $25,000 donation for the charity of his choice.
