Khamzat Chimaev is out of his historic bout against former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker on June 22. Originally booked to face ‘The Reaper’ in the main event of the UFC’s first-ever Saudi Arabia card, ‘Borz’ is reportedly sick and in the hospital, forcing him to pull out.

Chimaev has been replaced by the unranked Ikram Aliskerov, who has a golden opportunity to fast forward his way through the 185-pound division if he can emerge victorious against the ever-dangerous veteran Whittaker. And while Chechen’s manager, Majdi Shammas, has claimed that he is suffering from a bad case of food poisoning, Chimaev’s nemesis and undefeated wrestling phenom Bo Nickal put forth a very different version of the story.

Bo Nickal contradicts Khamzat Chimaev’s manager’s claims on illness

On his YouTube channel, Bo Nickal addressed Chimaev’s illness. The two, of course, have been going back and forth since last year, taking shots at each other. Nickal, a two-time NCAA D1 wrestling champ, had called ‘Borz’s wrestling “trash”, claiming it wasn’t even “mid-level.” This would prompt Chimaev to tweet out, “This wrestling was big bullsh**” after Nickal’s UFC 300 victory over Cody Brundage in April.

And predictably, after ‘Borz’s recent injury, Nickal had some choice words to say. On an episode of his ‘Nickals and Dimes Podcast‘ on his YouTube channel, ‘Bo’s co-host Ronan Bell remarked apropos Chimaev that “He’s sick. Can’t do anything about an illness or anything. Well not get sick that would be a good solution.”

To which the Penn State alumni sardonically observed, “That’s what I do, just don’t get sick.” His co-host then pointed out “I mean he said that you can’t wrestle, but at least you can wrestle currently right now.” Nickal jokingly pointed out that since he was not in the hospital like the Emirati citizen, he could “technically” wrestle at the moment.

Nickal’s other co-host (and fellow wrestler), Anthony Cassar, felt that the illness was not Chimaev’s fault and speculated that Chechen’s health deteriorated due to ‘over-training’. The 28-year-old, however, claimed that he had heard rumors that Chimaev was actually in the hospital due to training too hard with his former teammate and UFC middleweight Darren Till.

“I don’t think he’s over-training. I think he’s over partying… I’ve just heard rumors about like him and [Darren] Till and stuff,” Nickal said. This, of course, is in sharp contrast to the food poisoning claims made by ‘Borz’s manager.

Nickal, like Chimaev, is undefeated and one of the most hyped fighters in the promotion. In addition, the two already have an ongoing feud. Many were puzzled as to why the unranked Aliskerov was chosen to replace Chimaev instead of Nickal. As it turns out, the former D1 wrestler was approached but didn’t even get the messages from the UFC until days later.

Nickal missed UFC messages about replacing ‘Borz’

On his podcast, Nickal revealed that he was made a very generous offer to fight Robert Whittaker instead of Chimaev. But the former wrestling champ was out camping in the mountains of Montana,  where there was no cell service. “I did get a call. Unfortunately, I got a call while I was in the mountains of Montana and I didn’t get back to cell service for three days….I’m not gonna disclose numbers, but they were up there,” Nickal said.

He only found out about the offer three days later, when he came back from the mountains, but it was too late, and Aliskerov had been decided upon as the replacement for Chimaev. However, the Colorado native revealed that even if he had received the messages from the UFC on time, he would have probably turned down the bout because of the venue. “Honestly, I don’t really want to go to Saudi Arabia and fight,” he said.

Speaking about the new Saudi main event, Nickal felt that Aliskerov, only two fights into his UFC career, had what it took to beat Whittaker even on short notice. That would certainly be a huge development in the 185-pound division and would make Dagestani one of the top middleweight contenders.