Bo Nickal wants to fight Khamzat Chimaev.
UFC newcomer and highly-touted middleweight prospect Bo Nickal believes he and Khamzat Chimaev are on a collision course with destiny.
The three-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion and American Top Team product has yet to make his UFC debut but claims he is already ready to fight Khamzat who is undefeated in the UFC and tipped as a future two-weight champion.
Colorado-born Nickal was featured as a guest on Michael Bisping’s YouTube podcast where he hyped a future showdown with Chimaev as ‘one of the biggest fights in UFC history’ and a matchup that needs to happen to determine the best wrestler in the promotion.
“Let’s go. I’m Ready,” Nickal (3-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) told Bisping (h/t Low Kick MMA). “I’m ready for him right now, he’s a good matchup for me. He’s not taking me down, he’s not doing nothing to me.“
“I’m 6 foot 1, 205lbs, I’m a full grown ‘85er’, and yeah, that’s a matchup I really really want. I feel like he’s been in MMA longer than me and is a little ahead of me in terms of the organization, but I think without a doubt we have to match up at some point.“
He continued: “If he stays undefeated, keeps winning, I think that could be one of the biggest fights in UFC history. He competes really hard. He goes hard from the first whistle. He seems a little emotional to me, I don’t really know that he makes the best decision. We saw that in the gilbert burns fight, all of a sudden he’s just slangin’ and bangin’ with this dude for real no reason.
“When I watch his actual wrestling stuff, he’s basically a 25-year-old man wrestling high school kids in Sweden, there’s not really much to be said about that.”
Nickal, 26, was expected to make his Octagon debut next month at UFC 282 against Jamie Pickett but was forced out of the matchup due to injury. He signed with the UFC in September following an impressive 52-second submission of Donovan Beard (7-2 MMA) at Dana White’s Contender Series 56.