Widely considered as a future champion in the middleweight division, Bo Nickal has considered the potential of a future fight against Shara ‘Bullet’ Magomedov.
At UFC 309 on November 16, Bo Nickal is scheduled to take on Paul Craig in what is expected to be his toughest test so far of his three-fight UFC career.
The highly decorated collegiate wrestler wasn’t impressed with his performance last time out at UFC 300 as it took him till round two to secure a submission finish over Cody Brundage.
Bo Nickal talks potential fight against Shara ‘Bullet’ Magomedov
Another middleweight who is turning heads at the moment is Shara ‘Bullet’ Magomedov. The undefeated Russian recently picked up a KO of the year contender against Armen Petrosyan at UFC 308, putting him inside the top 15 of the division.
Early into his UFC tenure, ‘Bullet’ flirted with the idea of a potential fight against Nickal. Before giving his opinion on a future fight against Shara, Nickal commented on the Russian’s recent knockout win.
“Crazy (KO), bro. That was insane. Who does double-spinning backfists? And, you know he was hitting it on the pads before the fight, too? There’s clips of him hitting it, bop bop!” Nickal commented on the Nickels and Dimes Podcast.
“I mean, it’s like, I would like to fight him but it’s not a tough fight and I would have to go to Abu Dhabi, or I would have to go to Saudi, which I would do but I think it’s not a tough fight and also the UFC probably doesn’t want that right now, maybe they would, maybe they don’t give a crap.
“Go over to Saudi, make a quick cheque, 90 seconds, call it a day, fly back. Yeah, I don’t know. It’d be fun though,” Nickal continued.
The wrestler went on to state that he thinks the promotion will continue to match Magomedov up with fellow strikers to preserve his record and keep him away from any grappling danger.
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Bo Nickal wants to win the title and defend it 6-7 times
Although the 28-year-old has made it clear that he is not looking past Craig, he has admitted that when he becomes the 185lb champion he would like to defend his title six or seven times.
“This is just a step on the path, for me I’m not training for this fight specifically, I’m really just training for my fifth, sixth, seventh title defense at the end of the day, that’s my goal,” Nickal told Demetrious Johnson in an interview.
“That’s what I’m working towards, not to sound like I’m overlooking Paul Craig because I’m absolutely focused on this, but my training and my preparation is to be world champion and to defend that title many times so that’s what I really have on my mind at the end of the day,” Nickal continued.