Bo Nickal didn’t have a great day at work on his last outing at UFC 309. He edged past Paul Craig via decision but left a lot to be desired, but he’s still confident about his chances against fellow undefeated middleweight contender, Khamzat Chimaev. The Penn State alum recently went as far as to deem ‘Borz’s most important skill ineffective against him, which is something that a former UFC fighter appears to agree with.

Nickal claimed that Khamzat Chimaev won’t find any success if he tried to shoot takedowns against him. Instead, ‘Borz’ would find himself on the receiving end of a barrage of elite grappling. “You’re not gonna take me down, which is your best attribute. You’re gonna have to strike with me. I’m probably going to be able to take you down,” Bo Nickal recently told Chael Sonnen.

Most UFC fans and pundits would brush off these comments from Nickal, given that even former champions and top contenders have lauded Chimaev’s wrestling. However, Jorge Masvidal has a different theory. The former UFC welterweight star believes that Bo Nickal has the gas tank to consistently keep the pressure on Khamzat Chimaev. “All Day bro,” Masvidal commented in a post on Instagram.

Jorge Masvidal has always been a staunch critic of Khamzat Chimaev, having ripped him with his words for the hype surrounding him in the past. Moreover, the first-ever UFC BMF champion even made a failed prediction about the Chechnya-born star’s chances in the middleweight division. Let’s see what Masvidal had to say.

Jorge Masvidal once predicted a bad fate for Khamzat Chimaev at 185 pounds, which didn’t come true

Months after announcing his retirement at UFC 287, Jorge Masvidal spoke about Kamaru Usman stepping up to fight Khamzat Chimaev on short notice at middleweight. Given that ‘Borz’ defeated ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ by the narrowest of margins, ‘Gamebred’ claimed that Chimaev would struggle to find his footing if he ever stepped up to a real ranked middleweight contender and would not be able to showcase the same level of dominance he did as a welterweight fighter.

“He just beat 11-day notice 170-pounder Usman, like, come on. You’re gonna give that guy hype for that? He was looking for a way out,” Jorge Masvidal told ‘MMA Mania’ back in 2023. “He’s not a ranked 85′ player… You put him in there with a lot of these guys, I think they’ll f—ing hurt him.” Well, as we know, Chimaev would score the biggest win over former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker, and that too, in a fashion that many people might not have expected.

Meanwhile, Bo Nickal may have made these bold claims about taking down Chimaev, but after his last fight, he admitted publicly that he needs to get better. With him talking about the possible fight against the 14-0 star makes us wonder about the outcome when and if they finally step inside the Octagon. Drop your predictions regarding a potential Bo Nickal vs. Khamzat Chimaev clash.

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