Darren Till has been reaping the benefits of aligning with Khamzat Chimaev.
Till hasn’t exactly found his groove as of late. “The Gorilla” has gone 1-4 in his last five outings. He went from calling out UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya to searching for answers in order to get back on track.
Till-Chimaev Pairing
Khamzat Chimaev opened the door for Darren Till to train with him at Allstars Training Center. Since aligning with Chimaev, Till has been introduced to perhaps another level of dedication.
During an interview with Frontkick, Till said that Chimaev has given him newfound motivation.
”I’ve had like a tough past year, or the past two years,” Till says. ”So I feel like this is what I’ve needed to like get me back up there. See him working like this, for me to then do it the same. You know like, I’m using Khamzat now as a little bit of an inspiration for myself, you know what I mean? So it’s good man.”
Till then reflected on the time Chimaev welcomed him with open arms.
”Basically, when Khamzat had his first UFC fight I thought ’who is this guy?’ So I messaged him on Instagram and I was like, ’Hey bro, you wanna fight?’ And he was like, ’Yeah, yeah, I wanna smash you brother,’ and I was like, ’Okay.’ We did an Instagram live as well and he was like pulling a knife out, and I was like, ’This guy is like the Swedish Darren Till, he’s crazy!’ But I liked him, I liked his attitude. I watch a lot of his videos where he was working hard and I was like, ’I really like this guy.’ So we stayed in touch, you know?
”I knew a few guys from Allstars Training Center. And when I came back from Vegas after my last fight, I was feeling a little bit down, you know? I was a little bit like, feeling sorry for myself. I spoke to some of the guys and Khamzat was like, ’Come and train brother,’ you know? ’I’m gonna [help] you back up,’ you know? Motivated and stuff like that. I was like, ’Okay.’ So I spoke to my team back home, Team Kaobon, they were okay with everything and you know, here I am.”
Chimaev has been linked to a possible collision with the number two-ranked UFC welterweight Gilbert Burns. Reports claim the bout is likely for UFC 273 on April 9. The bout hasn’t been made official at this time.
