Bo Nickal revealed the UFC never offered him a short-notice fight against Khamzat Chimaev next weekend.
On October 21, the UFC returns to the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi for UFC 294. The event was supposed to feature Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira II in the main event and Khamzat Chimaev vs. Paulo Costa in the co-main event before everything changed earlier this week.
Less than two weeks before UFC 294, Oliveira and Costa pulled out with injuries, leading Kamaru Usman to fight Chimaev and Alexander Volkanovski to rematch Makahchev for the 155-pound title.
Once Costa pulled out, the MMA community was vocal about wanting several fighters to accept the short-notice opportunity, with Bo Nickal being a primary option.
During a podcast on his YouTube channel, Nickal addressed the fans’ interest by revealing the UFC didn’t offer him the fight. The three-time NCCA Division I national wrestling champion had this to say about the situation:
“I was a little disappointed they didn’t ask me. They didn’t ask me to step in there. I was expecting at least an ask like, ‘Hey, do you want to do this?” But no, just nothing. Nothing from the UFC, so is what it is.”
Bo Nickal continued:
“I’m guessing that they didn’t want me to roll over into Abu Dhabi on like ten days’ notice and smashed their boy in front of his home crowd or something. That’s a fight that needs to have a proper buildup and whatnot, so I get that. It was just interesting to me because I probably got today, I don’t even know how many, comments and DMs and this and that, [saying] ‘Fight Khamzat].”
Watch Bo Nickal’s entire podcast episode below:
Bo Nickal believes Kamaru Usman isn’t ‘in a great position’ heading into UFC 294
Instead of Bo Nickal, former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman looks to capitalize on the chance to hand Khamzat Chimaev his first professional MMA loss. Usman is coming off back-to-back world title losses against Leon Edwards, but the new scenery and decreased weight cut could be beneficial.
When it comes to Nickal’s perspective, he believes the UFC 294 co-main event will be competitive, as Chimaev and Usman have something to prove. The Penn State alum had this to say during the previously-mentioned podcast episode:
“I think it’ll be very competitive based on [Chimaev’s] last fight with [Gilbert] Burns. I do think he overlooked Burns but also Usman is, he’s pretty good…Not too much of an upside [for Usman], but I think that for Usman, he’s already been the champ, defended his belt, and then just lost back-to-back, so he’s not really in a great position.”
Bo Nickal isn’t fighting Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294, but the must-see matchup feels inevitable. In the meantime, Chimaev plans to secure a title shot by defeating Kamaru Usman. Meanwhile, Nickal is grinding away in the gym after extending his UFC record to 2-0 with a 38-second knockout win against Val Woodburn on July 8.
