Ever since Bo Nickal‘s pro-MMA career started three years ago, there has been one fight that almost everyone wants to see. The three-time NCAA D1 wrestling champion is one of the top wrestlers in the entire promotion, maybe even number one. But to prove that he is the best UFC wrestler, he needs to fight Khamzat Chimaev.

‘Borz’, of course, is a takedown maniac and many would agree belongs at the top of that list. Since both men fight at 185lbs, a possible Chimaev-Nickal clash has been a fight many have been waiting for. There has also been a fair bit of trash talk between the two, with Nickal having fired fresh shots at Chimaev recently. After all, the Penn State alum told Chael Sonnen in no uncertain terms that he would beat Chimaev in a fight.

This has made former champion and UFC commentator Daniel Cormier curious about Nickal taking such a strong stance for a Chimaev fight. After all, this is the same fighter who had admitted his appreciation for Chimaev a few months ago that he “got a lot of work to do” before he can get to a level to fight ‘Borz’. But the American taking a virtual U-turn on the topic has Cormier’s gears spinning.

“Now that is about as strong a statement in regards to Khamzat Chimaev that I’ve seen Bo Nickal make. So I wonder what happened? What did he do or discover in the gym that he is more strong with his convictions?… Something happened,” Cormier wondered on his YouTube channel.

And DC is convinced that this change has to do with something Nickal did in the gym. Perhaps the American sparred against someone like Chimaev and was able to deal with them easily, which has given him so much confidence.

“You don’t make that big a turn without something happening in the gym that either clicked. Or you went with someone that you feel is comparative to Khamzat Chimaev and you did well against him,” ‘DC’ said before he warned Nickal that even if he is a better wrestler than ‘Borz’, that may not count for as much as the collegiate wrestling champ thinks.

“In theory when you’re the better wrestler, you expect to be able to control the wrestling. In reality, it’s not as clear a line to define as one would think,” Cormier added. But what is it that Nickal said about a fight with Chimaev, which led to these speculations by ‘DC’.

Bo Nickal lays out why he beats Khamzat Chimaev

Bo Nickal feels that the biggest reason he will beat Khamzat Chimaev in a fight is two-fold. One, he thinks and has always maintained that he is just a better wrestler than ‘Borz’. This may well be true. But then again, this is mixed martial arts. That is where the second reason comes in and it has to do with Chimaev’s gas tank, or lack thereof.

“His biggest thing that’s going to crush him, especially in a fight against me, dude you’re going to get tired,” Nickal told Sonnen in their podcast episode. Indeed, Chimaev does struggle as the rounds go on, with his UFC 294 clash against Kamaru Usman seeing him struggle a lot in the third round.

And since Nickal believes himself a better wrestler, he is sure Chimaev is “not going to take me down, which is your [Chimaev’s] best attribute.” This means ‘Borz’ would have no choice but to strike with Nickal, which isn’t his strongest suit. On the other hand, Nickal believes that “I’m probably going to be able to take you down, maybe I don’t hold you down on the ground forever. But I can hold you down there for a little bit and the longer the fight goes, the worse it’s going to get for you.”

At the moment, Chimaev and Nickal are at very different places in their career. The American is still going to decisions with unranked veterans, while the Emirati is demolishing top-ranked former champions. This is why many fans are skeptical of Nickal’s chances against Chimaev. But then again, this is the fight game and results often come down to stylistic matchups.

And in that case, Nickal is probably right to be so confident of beating Chimaev. What do you think about Daniel Cormier’s take on Nickal’s recent comments about Chimaev?