Bo Nickal doesn’t think too highly of Khamzat Chimaev’s wrestling skills.
After six fights and six decisive wins inside the Octagon, Khamzat Chimaev has looked practically unstoppable, but three-time NCAA Division I national champion Bo Nickal is far from impressed, suggesting that the Chechen fighter’s wrestling skills are mid.
“It’s trash,” Nickal said in an interview with Clash of Combat. “I wouldn’t even say mid-(level).”
Nickal, who also boasts an undefeated record in mixed martial arts, has called out Chimaev on multiple occasions making their potential clash seemingly inevitable.
“At the end of the day, I feel like I can say whatever about his wrestling skills, his fighting skills, this and that, we’re going to fight at some point and people will realize there’s levels,” Nickal said. “It’s just so funny, you go into a world of MMA where there’s no other sport where people know less and think they know more” (h/t MMA Junkie).
Bo Nickal Curious to See How Khamzat Chimaev Looks Against at Top-Ten Middleweight
On October 21, Chimaev will make his first appearance inside the Octagon in more than a year as he is set to square off with one-time UFC title challenger Paulo Costa. Speaking about the high-profile clash in Abu Dhabi, Bo Nickal believes Chimaev will come out on top, but believes the undefeated Chechen monster may face a tougher-than-expected task moving up from welterweight to middleweight.
“I think it’s going to be a good fight,” Nickal said. “Probably – I think he probably will. It’s definitely a different ball game when you go from 170 to 185. We’re talking about a different size human being.”
Bo Nickal also suggested that Chimaev’s ability to make 170 pounds is a tell-tale sign that ‘Borz’ would stand no chance against the sizeable middleweight that Nickal is. Nevertheless, Nickal is looking forward to seeing what Chimaev can do against someone as formidable as Paulo Costa at UFC 294 this fall.
“We’ll see how he does,” Nickal continued. “He’s obviously a big ’70, but it’s a different size human, and to me, anybody who can make 170, none of those dudes are going to be competitive with me. Costa is a different story, I’m going to watch the fight, so we’ll see how he does.”
Ahead of his Octagon return at UFC 294 in October, Khamzat Chimaev has been tipped to further continue his dominant roughshod run through contenders, according to Kevin Holland – who expects the Chechen finisher to excel at the middleweight limit. Chimaev, the current number four ranked welterweight contender, is slated to make a return to […]
Former middleweight title challenger, Paulo Costa has landed the accolade as the current most tested fighter by anti-doping agency, USADA (United States Ant-Doping Agency) as of this year, ahead of his planned Octagon return at UFC 294 in October. Costa, who currently holds the number six rank in the official middleweight pile, is slated to […]
One-time middleweight title challenger Paulo Costa has some big plans, and it all starts with handing undefeated Chechen monster Khamzat Chimaev his first career loss this fall. After more than a year on the shelf, Costa will return to the Octagon on October 21. Originally, ‘The Eraser’ was expected to step inside the cage at […]
Ahead of his Octagon return at UFC 294 in October, one-time middleweight title challenger, Paulo Costa has promised a “savage” win over arch-rival, Khamzat Chimaev in their upcoming showdown – once more predicting a stoppage over the undefeated finisher. Costa, the current number seven ranked middleweight contender, has been sidelined from active competition since he […]