Darren Till‘s MMA career fizzled out last year. The always-entertaining Englishman parted ways with the UFC after a slew of setbacks and health issues. But he was a star in the promotion before he left. In fact, Till was slowly but surely making his way up the division before a barrage of consecutive losses, which he attributes to an injured MCL.
Now, just a year later, Till is struggling to get someone to box him, while the promotion has moved on and is a very different place today. This is nowhere better illustrated than one of the Englishman’s interactions with a fellow fighter three years ago, which got Till’s friend, Khamzat Chimaev quite riled up. A video from three years ago has resurfaced, where UFC welterweight Joaquin Buckley could be seen walking up to Till, trying to convince the Englishman to fight him.
Buckley, of course, defeated Colby Covington at UFC Tampa last night and is en route to a title shot, if his recent stellar run continues. But three years ago, he was still a relatively unknown middleweight and was chasing Till for a fight. “Darren, Darren, Darren, let me get money bro. You gotta let me get a fight bro. It’s been a minute, man. He at 170 right now,” Buckley could be seen saying in the clip. To which a somewhat taken aback Till replied “You wanna fight in July?” To Buckley’s utter delight, who suggested “Let’s fight in July. London?”
But hilariously, it turns out Till didn’t even recognize who ‘New Mansa’ was, as the Englishman admitted to Khamzat Chimaev, who was beside him after Buckley left. “I don’t know,” Till admitted when ‘Borz’ asked him who the guy with whom he just agreed to a fight was.
This apparently rubbed ‘Borz’ the wrong way. He might have thought Buckley was just some random guy or an influencer, who was acting tough and trolling Till. “Hey, let’s fight now,” Chimaev yelled at Buckley. ‘New Mansa’ apparently took it as a joke and responded with a humorous “Say wassup, on my mama [we’ll fight].” But this predictably just inflamed the then-famously prickly Chimaev even more, who responded with an ominous “You wanna play gangster? I’m gonna f**k you up.”
In the end, things thankfully didn’t escalate further as both ‘Borz’ and Buckley were walking away from each other by the time Chimaev decided to get lippy. On the other hand, it is almost certain that Chimaev wouldn’t be as heated if the interaction had happened at present.
Khamzat Chimaev’s ‘Vinland Saga’ revival
Not too long ago, Khamzat Chimaev was yelling at the top of his lungs that he would “kill everyone” (meaning his opponents) and getting into feuds left, right, and center. But today, ‘Borz’ is a changed man, far more respectful and amicable as a person, careful with his words, seemingly on his way to attaining nirvana. And what exactly is behind that change? Well, he became a father and now wants to act like a man his son would be proud of.
“Before, I was crazy I was just doing the things…now you do anything, before you do you think about like if my son grows up how’s he gonna see me? How will he think about me? What kind of man my father is?” Chimaev told reporters before his UFC 308 clash against Robert Whittaker in late October.
Of course, some would complain that this has made him a bit less entertaining. And given how his interaction with Buckley three years ago went down, it would be hard to disagree with them. But it’s hard to complain when someone is trying to change and become a better person. Even if the UFC will not be as entertaining without the old ‘Chechen wolf’. What do you think about Khamzat Chimaev’s testy exchange with Joaquin Buckley three years ago?
