Former UFC champion Aljamain Sterling had a surprise take on Bo Nickal’s future after UFC Des Moines.
UFC middleweight blue-chip prospect Bo Nickal suffered his first-career setback in the cage at UFC Des Moines on Saturday. After a dominant start to his MMA career, the former NCAA Division I wrestling national champion Nickal was finished by former two-division ONE champ Reinier de Ridder, as de Ridder knocked him out with a liver shot in Round 2.
Nickal’s undefeated start to his MMA tenure came to an abrupt end at UFC Des Moines. Entering the fight off of a sluggish performance against Paul Craig in November, Nickal struggled with de Ridder’s grappling and size inside the Octagon.
After watching Nickal come up short for the first time, one UFC star believes the talented prospect should make a surprising change.
Aljamain Sterling encourages Bo Nickal to consider a welterweight move after UFC Des Moines
After one fan brought up Nickal and de Ridder’s size discrepancy, former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling agreed in a recent post on X.
“I hate that I was right but the size disparity for Nickal at 185 is very apparent,” Sterling responded.
After one follower challenged Sterling’s assertion on Nickal, he doubled down on his stance.
“I wrestled 133 then 141. Somehow, I magically was able to make 135. Bonus a middleweight but the top 15 MWs are noticeably bigger than him in the cage. Even [Cody] Brundage looked bigger,” Sterling posted.
UFC analyst Alan Jouban sided with Sterling on Nickal’s physicality at 185 lbs, and encouraged Nickal to sit down with his team to discuss a potential weight class change.
“Anyone saying otherwise needs to really have their eyes checked. I’m a huge wrestling and Nickal fan, but that conversation needs to be had, and it’s not an easy choice by any means,” Sterling said of Nickal’s possible weight move.
Nickal fought as low as 174 lbs during his collegiate wrestling career, and has competed at middleweight for his whole MMA stint. The Dana White’s Contender Series alum cut 37 lbs to make the middleweight limit during UFC Des Moines fight week, a dramatic cut that sounded alarms.
Sterling is familiar with making a dramatic weight class change in MMA, moving up from bantamweight to featherweight last year after a loss to Sean O’Malley. He’s 1-1 in the featherweight division and is coming off a most recent loss to Movsar Evloev at UFC 310.
Aljamain Sterling’s former rival encouraged Bo Nickal despite his first career defeat
Sterling’s former UFC 288 adversary, Henry Cejudo, took a measured approach to his post-fight message to Nickal after UFC Des Moines. In a recent tweet, Cejudo encouraged Nickal to press forward and compared the de Ridder loss to one of his infamous defeats earlier in his career.
After a loss to Demetrious Johnson earlier in his flyweight tenure, Cejudo got his revenge years later, eventually dethroning Johnson and becoming a two-division champion. Cejudo believes Nickal can go on a similar run after suffering the first loss of his MMA career.
Meanwhile, de Ridder remains unbeaten through three fights in the UFC and called out a former titleholder after UFC Des Moines. De Ridder has his sights set on Sean Strickland for a matchup after Strickland’s recent title rematch defeat at UFC 312.