Darren Till is taking his friend Khamzat Chimaev over Alex Pereira if they fight.
There is a new middleweight champion in the UFC. Newcomer to the promotion Alex Pereira was able to claim his first UFC championship belt this past weekend when he defeated Israel Adesanya at UFC 281. Immediately following the win, other fighters began to call out the new champ, including Khamzat Chimeav.
Chimaev has been one of the fastest-rising fighters in the past few years in terms of skill and popularity. He came into the UFC to fight in the welterweight division but has now twice fought at a higher weight. After missing weight for his scheduled bout against Nate Diaz, Chimaev might be on a path to a permanent move to middleweight. He has spoken about wanting to participate in both weight classes but after seeing Pereira win, he has his sights set on the 185-pound belt.
This is my belt 😡😡😡
Let me fight @ufc— Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev) November 13, 2022
🤼♂️🤦🏻♂️
— Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev) November 13, 2022
Darren Till thinks Khamzat Chimaev’s wrestling is far beyond Pereira’s capabilities
Chimaev called for a bout with Pereira on social media following his win. He thinks he will be able to out-wrestle the manly striking-based kickboxer. Chimaev’s good friend and training partner Darren Till thinks the same and spoke about it on Michael Bisping’s YouTube channel.
“Rest in peace and I don’t want to say his name because it’s a very sad day, but Rumble Johnson, I just want to give me condolences, but I’m actually going to give the example of him because he has the best example of it,” he said. “That man only had to touch a little finger on your head and you’d be knocked out. So I think Pereira has got sort of that type of thing. His wrestling is, you know, obviously, he’s young in the sport. I mean, I’ve seen that Khamzat called him out and I was like, oh my God, Khamzat will definitely take him down within 30 seconds. Okay, it’s a fight but, like that’s not a fight that Pereira is ready for.”
Pereira has spent the majority of his career fighting in kickboxing. He only began competing in MMA in 2015. His ground skills are still a work in progress and although he is now a BJJ brown belt, the stellar wrestling of Chimaev could be an issue.
