May 19 (UPI) -- UFC lightweight Beneil Dariush received a temporary Tesla after calling out CEO Elon Musk following the fighter's victory over Tony Ferguson at UFC 262 last week.
The 32-year-old Dariush beat Ferguson via unanimous decision last weekend in Houston and decided to make a surprise callout of Musk after the win. Dariush, who lives in Southern California, said he ordered a new car from the company for his pregnant wife six months ago, but he has yet to receive the vehicle.
Shortly later, Musk apologized to Dariush in a post on social media. On Tuesday night, Dariush's manager, Ali Abdelaziz, posted a picture of Dariush standing next to a loaned Model Y Tesla.
"The week before the fight, right before I was about to leave, some guys asked, 'Hey, when is your Tesla coming?' And I said, 'Man, I don't know,'" Dariush told ESPN on Wednesday. "I said, jokingly, that I would just call Elon out after my fight. They said it was a great idea, and we laughed. It was just a joke.
"But as I got closer to the fight, I said, 'You know what? I'm actually going to call him out.' It's been frustrating. I've been waiting for months."
Dariush said he woke up Sunday to multiple messages from Tesla dealerships near his home asking him to return their calls. He said he initially wasn't going to return the calls.
"I'm like, 'I think I'm getting scammed,'" he said. "I didn't overthink it. I just ignored it. Then, I hear about how Elon replied to my callout. I said, 'Oh my gosh, these people might be real.' We called them back and they said to just come in and they'd get it all fixed up.
"I was like, 'That's it? Just come in? I've been calling you guys for months.'"
Tesla informed Dariush that his Model X, which he ordered in December, is finished, but the fighter said he still hasn't received a delivery date. In the meantime, Dariush will have the free loaner vehicle from the company.