Bo Nickal received an offer he couldn't refuse… but it was one he couldn't accept at the time.
Nickal, a three-time NCAA wrestling champion, made his UFC debut last year and has had a fairly quick journey since turning pro in 2022. Nickal has made up for the experience gap with his incredible wrestling resume and has made nights at the office quick and pretty effortless, improving to 6-0 with his most recent submission win over Cody Brundage at UFC 300.
Following Nickal's one-sided fight, the world is left wondering when the highly-rated boxer will step up and compete, and how he will fare against the middleweight powerhouses. Those questions could have been answered as early as this month, had Nickal answered the phone.
'Very Unwell' Khamzat Chimaev Leaves UFC Saudi Arabia, Robert Whittaker's New Opponent
Last week, UFC appeared to hint at a possible matchup with former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker following Khamzat Chimaev's withdrawal from a scheduled main event bout in Saudi Arabia, but Nickal explains that the middleweight bout never materialized.
“Unfortunately, I received a call [to fight Whittaker] “I was in the mountains in Montana and I had no cell phone signal for three days,” Nickal said. YouTube Channel“Once I got cell signal, I got a few text messages saying, 'Call me back, call me back, call me back…' but it was too late.”
By the time Nikal returned, another middleweight prospect, Ikram Aliskerov, had accepted a fight with Whittaker about a week earlier, a fight that Whittaker said nobody wanted.
Nickal never had a chance to sign the contract, but he did see the number of zeros next to the offer to fight.
“I won't give you the figure, but it was pretty big,” Nickal said of the payout for fighting Whittaker. “It was too late now. They already had it all figured out how to do it, and I couldn't even think about it, because I wasn't around anymore.”
Beau Nickal is rumored to be competing in a wrestling vs. grappling match against fellow Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Rodolfo Vieira later this year, but the bout has yet to be confirmed by the UFC.
UFC's Robert Whittaker unfazed by Chimaev cancellation: 'Anyone, anytime, anywhere'
Meanwhile, former champion Robert Whittaker says he didn't know if his next opponent would be Ikram Aliskerov when he first signed — all he knew was that he wanted to fight in Saudi Arabia, whether it was Khamzat Chimaev, Bo Nikkar or someone else entirely.
“Ikram brings a different threat to the table. I hadn't heard of him or seen him fight before, so sometimes you just have to take things as they are,” Whittaker said. New York Post Sports.
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