After Bo Nickal ‘s performance on Dana White’s Contender Series, which earned him a contract with the UFC, he called out Khamzat Chimaev and Logan Paul. Olympic gold medalist and former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo discussed the different levels of wrestling he observed in Nickal and Chimaev and matched them.
Bo Nickal did not think twice about calling Khamzat Chimaev out.
He said:
“Bo Nickal says ‘I want the Swedish princess. I want the guy that didn’t make weight. That’s the guy that I want. I just hope he shows up’. It just shows his confidence.”
Henry Cejudo added to his explanation of why he thinks Nickal’s wrestling is superior than Chimaev’s by saying:
“Chimaev thinks he’s good at wrestling – his wrestling is nowhere near Bo Nickal, I can tell you that. He can take down these UFC guys that have never wrestled – try taking Bo Nickal down, and 100 percent I can see Bo Nickal easily taking down Khamzat Chimaev.”
Cejudo would later counsel Nickal to take it easy before targeting elite opponents. He feels that Nickal’s wrestling is already superior to Chimaev’s. Cejudo adds that Nickal has a chance to win two UFC championships in the future.
Bo Nickal entered the UFC as one of the most anticipated prospects in recent memory. However, he will need to establish himself before facing Chimaev. Still Cejudo believes that Nickal could beat Israel Adesanya today.
“I think if you’re able to put him against Israel Adesanya now just according to styles Bo Nickel beats him. Bo Nickel beats Adesanya, puts him to his back, controls his wrist, grapples the heck out of them and that’s all she wrote. It’s almost like I’m going to go back and talk about how Khamzat Chimaev’s hardest Fights are not Israel Adesanya – Khamzat’s hardest fights guys, that could probably take you down like a Paulo Borracinha or a guy that understand wrestling like a Robert Whittaker are”
“I see the exact same thing with with Bo Nickal. Bo Nickal is going to have a harder time with the rest of the fighters than with actually the champion, because there’s such a big hole and there’s a deficiency in Israel Adesanya, it’s called wrestle, we saw that with with Jan (Blachowicz).”