Darren Till has addressed the criticism directed towards Khamzat Chimaev by former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and others in the MMA community.
Ahead of last Saturday’s UFC 279 event, Chimaev missed weight for his non-title welterweight bout against Nate Diaz by a whopping 7.5 pounds.
The undefeated ‘Borz’ was rescheduled to face Kevin Holland in a 180-pound catchweight bout instead. Chimaev dominantly defeated Holland via first-round submission. Nevertheless, he’s been called out for being unapologetic about missing weight and flipping the bird to booing fans at the UFC 279 ceremonial weigh-ins.
At a charity event featuring prominent personalities from the Islamic faith, Khabib Nurmagomedov sounded off on fellow Muslim MMA stalwart Khamzat Chimaev. He took issue with his UFC 279 weight debacle and purportedly disrespectful behavior.
‘The Eagle’ believes Chimaev isn’t surrounding himself with the right people. Nurmagomedov advised ‘Borz’ to surround himself with good Muslims who’ll guide him well.
Speaking to ESPN MMA, Chimaev’s training partner, UFC middleweight Darren Till, touched upon Nurmagomedov’s comments. Till, who has himself missed weight in the past, highlighted that the now-retired Nurmagomedov also missed weight during his career. Moreover, ‘The Gorilla’ opined that Chimaev was wrong but it was his first mistake. Till stated:
“Khabib’s missed weight like five times, man. Like, he’s got good people around him. We are not coming out now saying — What because me and Khamzat have a bit of fun on camera, being a bit wild; does that mean that I’m not good peoples or his coaches aren’t good peoples.”
“Like, his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach is one of the best grapplers of all time. He’s not Muslim. Does that mean he’s bad peoples. As much as I do respect Khabib as a person and a fighter, I just don’t respect him coming out with comments like that. And other people as well.”
Watch Till discuss the topic at 4:47 in the video below:
A closer look at Khabib Nurmagomedov’s history of weight-cutting issues
Khabib Nurmagomedov officially missed weight just once in his career, weighing in at 158.5 pounds for his lightweight bout against Abel Trujillo in 2013. The undefeated MMA great was hospitalized after a botched weight cut ahead of his scheduled matchup against Tony Ferguson in early 2017.
Furthermore, in his final MMA fight – a UFC lightweight title unifier against Justin Gaethje in October 2020 – Khabib Nurmagomedov was part of a highly controversial weigh-in.
While visibly struggling at the weigh-in ahead of the Gaethje matchup, Nurmagomedov was deemed to be on-point after a weigh-in official swiped the scale before it stabilized. Needless to say, the consensus is that while Chimaev was wrong to miss weight, Nurmagomedov himself had a long history of weight-cutting issues.
