Daniel Cormier had to clear all the misunderstandings from Bo Nickal’s mind following UFC 309. During the post-fight show, both Cormier and Joe Rogan spoke about how Nickal is not ready to fight the likes of Khamzat Chimaev yet because he was still raw and needed a lot of experience. But that’s not how the UFC fighter saw it as he accused the commentary team of questioning his fighting abilities instead.
So in a new video posted on his channel, DC clarified his remarks and claimed that he didn’t want Nickal to rush into fights before he was ready and said,
“He may have misunderstood what I’m trying to say. What I was more trying to say in this fight is let’s not rush him into fights with people that are much more experienced, much more battle-tested, much more ready to compete at the highest level.”
Cormier is suggesting that Nickal takes the Sean O’Malley route, work his way up the division slowly, gain more fighting experience, before eventually going for the title.
‘DC‘ does not want to see another promising talent go to waste just because he was rushed into things. Nickal is young and has a lot of time on his side which he should make the most of.
Besides, Nickal’s response to the DC’s original statement is a little hypocritical especially since he had said the same thing about fighting Chimaev in his pre-fight press conference.
Nickal has a lot of catching up to do
The UFC middleweight fighter had himself admitted that Chimaev’s next fight was going to be a title fight while he was still at the beginning of his career with only 6 pro fights to his name.
“I have a lot of catching up to do you know, I’m fighting unranked guys right now. Those are the types of fight I want in the future….The main focus is improve, develop, get better at fighting.”
So DC and Rogan only reiterated his thoughts live on air.
Maybe he thought they were questioning his performance, which they weren’t wrong about either. Although Nickal did win the fight, it was not convincing enough, it felt as though he was fighting with the safety on.
