The Chechen-born Swede got into it with the former welterweight title contender over social media recently.
Khamzat Chimaev’s UFC career may still only be in its infancy, but he’s already made a name for himself as a fighter that almost everyone in the middleweight and welterweight divisions has their eye on. His combination of size, power, and technical wrestling prowess have all the makings of a future champion. So it’s not terribly surprising that he’s found success getting under the skin of other elite fighters.
One of those is none other than former welterweight title contender and current top-ranked middleweight talent Darren Till. The ‘Gorrilla’ has struggled to find consistent form atop the 185 lb division, but that didn’t keep him from being exceptionally confident about his chances in a fight against ‘Borz’ if the two were ever to meet in the Octagon.
“I’ll fight you, of course. You know I will,” Till told Chimaev during a video conversation over Instagram, back in May. “But, you know I’d beat you, right? You know I beat you easy.”
In a followup interview with BT Sport, heading into this weekend’s UFC event, Chimaev talked about his exchange with Till, and whether there was any lasting animosity between them.
“No, I like this guy, actually,” Chimaev admitted. “He’s funny. A funny guy. And I feel sorry for him about last fight, he lose. He lose many fights last time. I think he’s good, but has to train harder.”
“No, but if he want’s to come to Stockholm, he’s welcome,” Chimaev added, when asked if he had any advice for Till. “I told him, I can help you with your wrestling or something. And we can spar, we can train.”
Chimaev is currently set to fight Li Jingliang, this Saturday, October 30th at UFC 267 in Abu Dhabi. The card is expected to be headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira. Darren Till last fought against Derek Brunson back in September of this year, losing that fight via 3rd round submission. Till reportedly suffered a torn ACL heading into the bout, no word yet on when he might be expected to return to action.