Bo Nickal compares Khamzat Chimaev’s wrestling skills to ‘every eight-year-old in Pennsylvania’
Bo Nickal is less than impressed with the wrestling skills of fast-rising contender, Khamzat Chimaev.
Nickal scored his fifth-straight win since making his professional mixed martial arts debut, knocking out newcomer Val Woodburn 38 seconds into their UFC 290 clash earlier this month. With the three-time NCAA Division I national champion still making a name for himself in the sport, don’t expect to see the former Nittany Lion take on anyone in the top ten just yet, but it certainly feels like Nickal is on a collision course with undefeated Chechen monster, Khamzat Chimaev.
Nickal called out ‘Borz’ following an impressive showing on Dana White’s Contender Series last year, and while it kinda felt like clout chasing at the time, fans are legitimately starting to wonder if Nickal has the skill set necessary to ragdoll Chimaev in a potential clash between world-class wrestlers.
Speaking with Michael Bisping on the former middleweight champ’s Believe You Me podcast, Bo Nickal offered his candid take on Khamzat Chimaev’s wrestling skills.
“Yeah you know, it was actually funny, I saw a video the other day of [Chimaev] competing against a guy and it was, you know, quite a few years ago however long five, six, seven years ago but I was just watching it,” Nickal said. “I’ve watched some highlights of him wrestling right and he looks good but he’s competing against like 16-year-old kids and it’s like well that’s a joke but anyways I was watching it and I was like, okay, I’m gonna watch this match and break him down, see what he’s doing.
Literally, the only thing he did was fake, fake, fake, fake double leg. I’m like dude, we have every eight-year-old in Pennsylvania can do that exact same thing like at the same skill level you’re doing, and yeah he wrestled hard and stuff, but I was just like, this guy is a good wrestler? What are we talking about?
“I don’t mean to be negative towards people’s skills and stuff, I obviously respect his skills, and MMA’s a completely different ball game like if we were to wrestle in a match, it’s a joke like it’ll end in sub 60 seconds, I’ll kill that guy and not even competitive but in a MMA fight like I said, different ball game” (h/t MMA News).
Bo Nickal Respects Khamzat Chimaev’s Skills, But Doesn’t See ‘Borz’ Taking Him Down in Potential Showdown
But don’t get Bo Nickal wrong. He has a great deal of respect for Chimaev and the dominant performances he has delivered inside the Octagon.
“I think my skills in wrestling translate very well to MMA, I’m still learning, I’m still growing so you know, with folk style wrestling, the application to MMA I think is the strongest out of any combat sport and that’s what I have,” Nickal continued. “The highest level folk style wrestling in the world and yeah when I look at his skills and what he does in the cage, I respect it a lot. I think that he is somebody that competes super hard and he has a good gas tank, he’s got a lot of dangerous weapons.“
As for how a potential fight between the two men would go, Nickal doesn’t see Chimaev possessing the power or the skills to take him down as he has done with many of his previous opponents.
“He obviously has good grappling, he’s able to take a lot of guys down and control them there, I think that if we were to fight, there’s no way he takes me down,” Nickal added.
Khamzat Chimaev is currently undefeated in his MMA career, boasting an impressive 12-0 record with six straight wins under the UFC banner. ‘Borz’ immediately made waves, earning three finishes in the span of eight weeks. Since then, he has added three more victories to his resume, defeating Li Jingliang, Gilbert Burns, and Kevin Holland. Chimaev has not competed since September 2022 but he is expected to return at UFC 294 when the promotion heads back to Abu Dhabi in October.
