If Khamzat Chimaev and Colby Covington end up fighting, Darren Till knows who he’d pick to win.
‘Borz’ has been out of action since September at UFC 279, when he faced Kevin Holland. In that outing, the Chechen scored a first-round submission win over ‘Trail Blazer’. However, that wasn’t the bout he was expecting that weekend.
The welterweight contender was first slated to face Nate Diaz that weekend in Las Vegas. However, the fight was scrapped after Chimaev badly missed weight, and faced Holland as a result. Following the event, Dana White signaled the contender would move up to 185 pounds.
However, he’s since gone back on that word and called for a clash with Colby Covington. ‘Chaos’ has been out of action since a win over Jorge Masvidal in March. Weeks after the event, ‘Gamebred’ reportedly assaulted Covington at a Miami bar, leaving the two in a messy legal situation.
Regardless of the legal issues, the promotion seems to be aiming for the welterweight clash to happen next year. Whenever the fight goes down, Darren Till is expecting Khamzat Chimaev to win. ‘The Gorilla’ is set to return this weekend and discussed the bout at UFC 282 media day.
There, the Brit picked Chimaev to win in a possible fight, with his strength and striking being the reason why. Till has trained with the Chechen for the past year, giving him a good insight into his skills in the gym.
“I think that’s a very good fight, I do,” stated Till to reporters at UFC 282 media day earlier this week. “People don’t see Colby [unless] he’s like in the news or media. But I know that he’s a guy that in secret trains really f*cking hard, and he’s like really disciplined.”
He continued,
“I think if those two were to fight, Khamzat would overpower him, I do. I think his striking is better, and I think when it comes to the wrestling he’d be the powerful one. But obviously, it’d be over five rounds, so he’d have to be really prepared. The trash talk would be fun, his English is getting phenomenally better. Obviously, me and him speak on the daily.”
“…But yeah, it would be a really good fight. A really good fight.”