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Khamzat Chimaev and Darren Till became fast friends after Till came to train at Chimaev's gym, and the two are now known as the 'Smesh Bros.' So it's somewhat surprising to see Chimaev training with Till's next opponent, Jack Hermansson.
Pictures of Khamzat Chimaev and Jack Hermansson training together popped up on both Chimaev and Hermansson's Instagram pages, with 'The Joker' writing:
"Getting some rounds in with the wolf"
Chimaev's post included some more pictures and some context. 'Borz' wrote that he's doing a "training camp" at Hermansson's Frontline Academy gym two hours west of Stockholm.
With only a few quality gyms in Chimaev's homebase of Sweden, it's unsurprising that he and Hermansson would end up training together over their careers. However, it's just a little unusual considering Darren Till is set to face Hermansson at the next UFC London on July 23.
Darren Till is on a bad 1-4 slump with back to back losses to Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson. He's been hoping that all his training with Khamzat Chimaev will translate into some success in the cage against 'The Joker.' Now his not-so-secret weapon is helping Hermansson prepare. Given Till's strong opinions on loyalty towards friends, this may cause some waves.
Watch Jack Hermansson get dominated by Khamzat Chimaev in a wrestling match
Back in November 2021, Jack Hermansson and Khamzat Chimaev participated in a special freestyle wrestling match at Bulldog Fight Night 9 in Gothenburg, Sweden. This was before Chimaev fought Gilbert Burns and was fans' first opportunity to see how 'Borz' would do against a top 10 ranked UFC fighter.
Chimaev dominated the match. Following the bout, Hermansson told 'The Schmo':
"Yeah I wasn't very happy with that one. I think you need to be, especially with Khamzat, you need to be awake from the first minute. He's a fast starter, I'm a little bit slow and yeah, so when I felt like I was getting into the fight, the fight was basically over."
The freestyle wrestling match between Chimaev and Hermansson was two three minute rounds, and Chimaev wasted no time in attacking Hermansson before the cage was even cleared out.
Jack Hermansson is trying to bounce back from a 2-3 run over the past three years that stalled out all the momentum he built off a four fight win streak beforehand. In his latest UFC fight he was narrowly outpointed by Sean Strickland in a split decision loss.
