Newly crowned UFC champion Khamzat Chimaev shows love to former sparring partner Darren Till after Misfits 22 win

Newly minted UFC middleweight kingpin Khamzat Chimaev has expressed support for his former sparring partner, Darren Till, who most recently won his third boxing bout.

This past weekend, in the main event of Misfits 22, Till locked horns with former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. Till dropped Rockhold twice, with the second knockdown in Round 3 finishing the bout.

Following the fight, Chimaev shared an emoji along with a picture of the bout on Instagram to show his support for Till.

Check out Khamzat Chimaev showing support to Darren Till below:

Khamzat Chimaev's Instagram story [Screenshot courtesy: @khamzat_chimaev on Instagram]

'The Gorilla' and 'Borz' were training partners for a long time until the Brit left the UFC in 2023 for a boxing career. The two are still close friends.

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Darren Till comments on Khamzat Chimaev's UFC 319 performance

Earlier this month at UFC 319, Khamzat Chimaev dethroned Dricus du Plessis by unanimous decision. Chimaev showed complete dominance with his grappling-heavy approach, secured 12 takedowns, had a control time of 21 minutes and 40 seconds, and landed 529 total strikes. About Chimaev's dominating performance, Darren Till told Bloody Elbow:

"I thought it was brilliant from a grappling aspect. I thought it was technical. He done everything he needed to do to get the win, and it was brilliant. I loved watching it. You can't always get the finish, and he's the champion now, so let's see who can overthrow him."

Till believes that currently, no one at middleweight has the tools to dethrone 'Borz'. However, he feels Islam Makhachev could be a problem for Chimaev at welterweight, should the two ever clash:

"There might be a few fighters who are up and coming, but right now, there's nobody. I think there's better fights for him at 170 pound, maybe Islam or something like that. If Islam goes up to 170 pounds, that's a good fight... I think Islam is a hard fight for him, I really do."