In the UFC, getting called out to your face is not an uncommon thing, even though things could get ugly after.
Darren Till was subjected to a face to face, direct callout from UFC stand out Joaquin Buckley during the UFC 273 Ceremonial Weigh-Ins.
Buckley, the winner of the 2020 UFC Honors for Knockout of the Year, approached ‘The Smesh Bros’ Till and his buddy Khamzat Chimaev behind the scenes.
During the encounter, Buckley asked Till to agree to clash with him in the octagon while dismissing Chimaev by saying “I can’t worry about him” because he’s campaigning at welterweight.
“You gotta let me get a fight bro, it’s been a minute man, you know what I’m saying, he [Chimaev] at 170 right now, I can’t worry about him, but you, I need you!” Buckley said.
Seemingly interested in the challenge, Till quickly asked would Buckley be ready for July.
“July? Let’s fight in July. Come on, let’s go. London?” Buckley replied.
“You gonna be ready?” Till responded.
“I been ready,” answers Buckley. “Let’s get the money.”
The two then shook hands and appeared to end the interaction in an amicable manner.
But as soon as Buckley walks away, Chimaev, who was standing beside Till, asked “Who is that guy?”,
Till answered “I don’t know” followed by a laugh.
The ‘Borz’ was seemingly not a fan of the interaction.
“Let’s fight now,” Chimaev said. “You want to play gangster, I’m going to f*ck you up.”
The security then separated the two before things got nasty.
Chimaev continued as he and Till walked away. “Nobody knows him. He takes a picture then talks about he wants to fight.”
Chimaev secured the #3 welterweight ranking after beating former title challenger Gilbert Burns on a close but unanimous decision.
As for Buckley, he needs to get a win against Abusupiyan Magomedov in June before even thinking about July. Buckley was previously displeased by the lack of promotion he received from the UFC which led him to enlist the help of D.U.S.T. specialist Dale Brown. But Brown could only get him thus far – considering the clash went to a lackluster decision.