Nickal says UFC called him about fighting Robert Whittaker in Saudi Arabia, but he was too deep in the Montana mountains to get the message.
The long-winding Ultimate Fighting Championship debut in Saudi Arabia took a big hit late last week when Khamzat Chimaev withdrew from his main event fight against Robert Whittaker because of a mystery illness. After a behind-the-scenes scramble, Ikram Aliskerov was selected as Whittaker’s new opponent. But, in another universe where cell service across America is better, Bo Nickal might have ended up getting the fight.
In a new interview on his YouTube channel, Nickal confirmed that UFC had called him regarding the headline vacancy. Alas, he was on one of his deep country walkabouts and ended up being a few days slow on getting back to them.
“I did get a call, yeah,” Nickal said. “Unfortunately, I got a call while I was in the mountains of Montana and I didn’t get back to cell service for three days. I came back into cell service to a few text messages saying, ‘Call me back, call me back, call me back!’ And … it was too late.”
Nickal didn’t sound particularly excited about the opportunity, saying “Honestly, I don’t really want go to Saudi Arabia and fight, that’s freaking far as crap.”
But, UFC was willing to make it worth his while.
“I’m not going to disclose numbers, but they were up there,” he said with a smile. “But, it was just too late. I couldn’t even really consider it because they had already kind of figured everything out, the way they were going to do it because I was gone.”
As for Chimaev, who has gone back-and-forth multiple times with Nickal through social media and the press?
“The dude’s losing his aura a bit,” Nickal said. “I don’t think he’s over-training. I think he’s over partying. I don’t know. What else would it be? I’ve just heard rumors about him and Till and stuff, like crazy stuff.”
Nickal’s last fight was a second round finish of Cody Brundage at UFC 300, and we still don’t have confirmation on when he’ll fight again. But, there are reports that UFC is eyeing UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden for the three-time NCAA Division I national champion.
On one hand, New York is a lot closer than Saudi Arabia, and now he won’t have to face “The Reaper.” On the other, New York taxes are killer and there’s no Saudi salary bump for saving a card last-minute.
As we’ve learned with other late replacements, what’s good for the wallet isn’t always what’s good for the career. It’s probably for the best Nickal missed that call and all the financial temptation that came with it.
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