Despite coming under fire for his now poor-aging comments on both Khamzat Chimaev and Khabib Nurmagomedov, Bo Nickal has been defended by a former Octagon star.
Returning over the weekend at UFC Des Moines, middleweight title prospect Nickal was handed his first professional combat sports defeat — in rather one-sided and eye-opening fashion.
Pitted with former two-division ONE Championship gold holder, Reinier de Ridder, Nickal was expected to roll over the Dutch contender as he had done with his last 7 opponents. However, coming unstuck, the amateur wrestling star was battered time and time again to the body, before succumbing to a brutal second-round knee strike, suffering a rather comprehensive TKO defeat.
And in the aftermath, Nickal has come under severe fire. Boldly claiming he would open as high as a -1000 betting favorite in a fight with incoming title chaser, Chimaev, the Colorado prospect also had words for Nurmagomedov.
Nickal had boldly claimed his lifetime of wrestling expertise would likely get him over the line against the Sambo specialist. But now, as the vultures circle around following the loss, former lightweight fighter Paul Fender has come to his defense.
“I don’t get it,” Felder told Michael Bisping this week. “He hasn’t said anything that’s insulting, over the top — polarizing-type statements. He’s just been a confident, young wrestler. That’s trying to make his way through,” Felder noted.
The last couple of days have seen Nickal’s name being dragged all over social media, with people calling him a quitter and claiming that he has now been ‘fraud checked’.
However, Felder believes it’s all a bit personal and over the top, not to forget, unnecessary.
“Now, granted, you can say, ‘Oh, the hype-train,'” the UFC commentator continued.
“If you wanna talk a little sh*t, whatever. But the fact that people go to cut his throat out there is a little ridiculous,” he added, noting that the UFC matching him up with Ridder was simply not a good choice for someone in the developmental stages of his MMA skills.
Meanwhile, following the consensus criticism, Nickal appears to have changed his hubristic tune, instead promising a stronger comeback
Nickal quotes ‘The Terminator’ after first loss
Left with very little to say following his one-sided defeat in Iowa, Nickal kept it short and sweet with his post-fight statement.
Taking to his official social media, the Colorado upstart wrote, “Grateful for the highs and lows, I’ll be back“.
This is a far cry from him, joined by UFC analyst Chael Sonnen, demanding a fight against middleweight title contender Khamzat Chimaev.
Questioning the level of competition he had faced in his career up until last year, Nickal pointed to the fact that he fought at UFC 300. While the Chechen superstar hadn’t.
“Who were you fighting at 5-0 bro?” Nickal said of Chimaev.
“Some random dude in Europe. I’m fighting in the UFC at UFC 300, so there’s levels to this. I think that people need to get to know me. And the more they get to know me the more they’re going to realize that ‘hey I’m that guy'”.
Sonnen, on the other hand, had called for the UFC to match up Nickal with Chimaev soon, claiming that they should strike while the iron was hot.
He had also argued that Chimaev and Nickal were always set on a collision course, and the sooner their paths crossed, the better – a distant call from the consensus that believed the American to be too amateurish to face someone as polished as the Emirati grappler.
