Bo Nickal continues to be as assured as ever that he’d have success in opposition to Khamzat Chimaev within the UFC’s octagon.
On Nickal’s YouTube channel throughout a dialog with Chael Sonnen, the multi-time UFC title challenger expressed his curiosity in a matchup between the undefeated middleweights.
“That’s the battle I’ve been wanting for a very long time,” Nickal mentioned. “We’ll make it occur. I feel that… that battle is very large. It’s been talked about since I [first] began MMA, and so I really feel like the right circumstance is for the belt. It must be for the belt in my thoughts.
“It adjustments the timeline a bit bit as a result of it’s like, let’s see, if I get into the rankings and he’s quantity no matter, we will battle, however I really feel like that it’s owed to, I feel, us as fighters, to the followers, to the MMA group, for that to be a world championship battle and I can’t wait. As a result of on the finish of the day, for me, the concept is I need to battle the most effective guys on the earth. It’s not, ‘This man sucks, this man sucks, I’m so a lot better than all people,’ it’s like, that man is freaking good. He’s a savage. He’s a beast.”
Nickal is among the most extremely touted prospects to ever enter the UFC, as he’s gained all 4 of his octagon appearances. After getting finishes in his first three promotional outings, Nickal confronted veteran Paul Craig at UFC 309 in November.
Though he was fairly happy with his efficiency, Nickal was capable of win a unanimous choice, one which didn’t go over in a spectacular method with the MMA group at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York.
Chimaev is coming off of an unbelievable first-round destruction of former champ Robert Whittaker at UFC 308, a efficiency that earned Chimaev the 2024 MMA Preventing Submission of the 12 months.
What would a battle between Nickal and Chimaev appear to be? Nickal isn’t 100% certain, however the Penn State wrestling nice can take an informed guess.
“It’s arduous to say precisely the place he’s at,” Nickal mentioned. “I feel that he’s good, he’s received abilities, however his largest factor that’s going to crush him, particularly [in] the battle in opposition to me is, dude, you’re going to get drained. You’re going to [fall down energy wise], and I’m going to go [up] as they battle goes on.
“You’re not going to take me down, which is your finest attribute, so that you’re going to should strike with me. I’m most likely going to take you down — possibly I don’t maintain you down on the bottom endlessly, however I can maintain you down there for a bit bit. And the longer the battle goes, the more severe it’s going to get, in order that’s type of my view of it from 30,000 toes and making an attempt to take all the info that we’ve got and take a look at it from a sensible perspective.”