Undefeated middleweight Bo Nickal reveals the unique reason he couldn’t accept a short-notice replacement for UFC Saudi Arabia.
In the hours between Khamzat Chimaev withdrawing from his upcoming UFC Saudi Arabia main event fight and Ikram Aliskerov stepping in, the promotion contacted multiple stars to see if they were available to be a short-notice replacement.
Khamzat Chimaev out of UFC Saudi Arabia, in steps Ikram Aliskerov
Less than two weeks out from his UFC return, undefeated phenom Khamzat Chimaev withdrew from his UFC Saudi Arabia clash with Robert Whittaker after falling “violently ill”, according to Dana White.
It’s a bitterly disappointing turn of events for fans of ‘Borz’, with Whittaker himself revealing that it took just two hours for the UFC to confirm his replacement opponent as Ikram Aliskerov.
However, it turns out that the promotion also had their eye on another key fighter; one who sadly couldn’t answer the call, not for injury or scheduling purposes, but because of poor phone signal.
Bo Nickal reveals he was offered UFC Saudi Arabia fight
Veteran manager Ali Abdelaziz claimed that the UFC had offered the short-notice replacement spot to Kamaru Usman; however, the promotion also reached out to undefeated 6-0 prospect Bo Nickal.
In the most recent episode of the ‘Nickals and Dimes’ Podcast, via his official YouTube channel, Bo Nickal revealed that the UFC had called him to offer a crazy amount of money to step in against Whittaker – but that he couldn’t even answer the phone.
“I did get the call, yeah… Unfortunately, I got the call while I was in the mountains of Montana, and I didn’t get back to cell service for three days.
“I came back into cell service to a few text messages saying, ‘Call me back, call me back, call me back’ and it was too late.”
Whilst Nickal refused to disclose how much money the UFC had offered him to step in on such short notice against one of the best fighters in the entire middleweight division, he did note with a glimmer in his eye that “they were up there.”
“It was like too late, and I couldn’t really even consider it because they had already figured out the way they were going to do it because I was gone,” Nickal explained, before revealing that even if he had phone signal, he probably would have declined based on the location.
“I was [leaning Whittaker over Khamzat] given the scenario and stuff but I don’t know man… Honestly, I don’t really want to go to Saudi Arabia and fight. Like that’s freaking far as c*** but yeah that dude is losing his aura a bit. He just needs to keep freaking winning and not doing this c***.”
Nickal, who has been the target of more than a few jabs from Chimaev down the years, understandably had a rather coy reaction to his withdrawal, “Just don’t get sick” – even suggesting that the reason for his illness isn’t overtraining but overpartying, “What else would it be?”
Interestingly, Nickal also offered a quick prediction for how the new UFC Saudi Arabia main event will go down – and he’s picking against the former champion.
“I think it should be a good fight, I think Ikram will probably win… I don’t know it depends on how ready he is and stuff, I just think style-wise that Ikram will probably win.”
UFC Saudi Arabia goes down on June 22, live from the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh – now headlined by Robert Whittaker vs Ikram Aliskerov.