Middleweight prospect Bo Nickal was in a really precarious position when he entered the fight week for UFC Des Moines. The 29-year-old made fans feel uneasy when he revealed that he had been weighing around 222.6 lbs just days before his fight against Reinier De Ridder. This was astronomically high for a middleweight fighter, who needs to cut down to 185 lbs (or 186 lbs in non-title fights), and there were concerns that nobody could save Nickal from missing weight.

Bo Nickal had a different game plan in mind to fight Reinier De Ridder, and that included bulking up to be a bigger middleweight than he’s ever been. His opponent, on the other hand, weighed in at 212 pounds when he fought Kevin Holland at UFC 311. So maybe this was an important step for Nickal to take, but he would later reveal that he was in a predicament with the fight approaching fast.

“I wanted to get a little bit bigger for the weight… Might have went a little too far with it… Now I’m suffering a little bit [from] the consequences of that,” Bo Nickal recently stated. However, the former multiple-time NCAA Division-1 champion trusted himself to make the weight cut, which was about 37 lbs, since he had never missed weight in his entire amateur and professional sporting career. And guess what? Nickal did it.

When the initial reports of the weigh-ins came in, Bo Nickal was not on the list, giving us a sense that maybe he missed weight. But he’d step up on the scale later, and he made it from 222.6 lbs to 185.5 lbs. It’s an absolutely impressive feat by the prospect, which shows his dedication and discipline towards his craft. Following the weigh-ins, Nickal dropped a message of relief on Instagram. “36lbs down. Hardest part is done. Almost time,” the 29-year-old wrote.

But there’s one thing that fans might be wondering about Bo Nickal. Why did he take such a risk of getting his fight canceled if he had weighed over the limit during the weigh-ins? Well, Nickal, in a recent interview, revealed that it’s all a part of his goal to become better. Here’s what he had to say.

Adding size will be beneficial, claims Bo Nickal

Bo Nickal may have been a little too confident after his first few UFC fights when he talked about beating Khamzat Chimaev, but after going to a decision against Paul Craig, he started to realize that he needs to get better at his game. Nickal recently claimed that he and his team are aiming to improve his fighting game with every training camp, and getting bigger is just a part of that process because he believes that it will pay dividends in the future.

“It’s [37 lbs] the biggest cut [for a fight] for sure. I think that I’m always looking to adjust things and make sure that I’m, in each camp and each training cycle, improving and getting better, and I felt like the [extra] size is something that’s good for me,” Bo Nickal told MMA Fighting ahead of his fight against Reinier De Ridder.

Well, he may have grown in size, but he needs to take into account the level of experience Reinier De Ridder has. After all, the Dutchman was a champion in his previous promotion, ONE Championship, and since debuting in the UFC, he’s shown that he’s pretty good. Everything will come down to this Saturday when both of these middleweights lock horns to best each other.

Well, what do you think about Bo Nickal’s massive weight cut? Let us know in the comments down below.