With a 14-0 record, where six wins were through KO, another six through submissions, and the remaining two wins via decisions, Khamzat Chimaev‘s dominance has been shining. His latest fight against Robert Whittaker, where he submitted the Aussie in round 1, reminded everyone of the days ‘Borz’ would fight a lot more frequently. But the win also started talks about the next potential opponent for him.

Khamzat Chimaev versus Bo Nickal? That would be interesting, considering both have dissed each other’s wrestling abilities. Back in April, when Nickal defeated Cody Brundage at UFC 300, the wolf tweeted, “This wrestling was big bull—-.”

But the three-time NCAA and U23 wrestling World Champion wasn’t going to simply stand and listen. He hit back in April and stated, “The fact that he’s recognizing it and he sees what’s coming, too, I think that it’s good for everybody.” Well, since then, there has been a bit of back and forth, and considering both fight at middleweight, people can’t help but feel intrigued. Add verbose UFC analyst Chael Sonnen to the list.

Sonnen took to his YouTube channel to present a hypothesis about what would happen if Chimaev and Nickal were to fight. “If you want to know who’s going to get the other one off their feet between Bo and Chimaev, it’s a fairly unlikely thing that either of them is going to do. If you put them in a pure straight-up wrestling match, it’s not as easy of a match as Bo thinks it would be. Now if you could have either one of their resumes you want Bo’s and you want Bo’s by a lot,” Sonnen shared.

“I believe Bo to be a four-time world champion. I believe his 3 NCA titles are World titles considering we are the only country in the world that contests that style. I feel the NCAA Championship is the World Collegiate Championships.”

Sonnen, in fact, reminded fans about the first Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington fight at UFC 245 five years ago. That bout didn’t have a single takedown landed, or even really attempted by either man. All this was despite the duo being excellent wrestlers whose whole game is built around chain wrestling.

So when it comes to Nickal and Chimaev, Sonnen expects something similar. After all, the former was also a four-time finalist for Penn State and helped the Nittany Lions win four team titles, whereas Chimaev’s dominance in wrestling is already known to fans.

This anomaly, according to ‘Uncle Chael,’ was because “they had all but an unspoken agreement, ‘I am not going to try to take you down again because you are so good at defending, it takes too much energy.'” Sonnen feels, “is what would happen with Bo and Chimaev. I don’t believe that there is a scenario where one of them controls the wrestling for all three rounds, where I can take him down at will.”

While fans may be talking about a clash between the two wrestling icons, there is not much chance of it happening anytime soon because of where they stand in the 185-pound division.

Can Khamzat Chimaev leapfrog Strickland for a middleweight title shot?

Khamzat Chimaev not only defeated Robert Whittaker at their UFC 308 clash last week but did so brutally that his hype train is back on track in full force. The ethnic Chechen will probably fight for the title in his next fight as their clash was seen as a virtual number-one title contender clash for the 185-pound crown.

The only thing that remains to be seen is whether he does so before or after Sean Strickland. ‘Tarzan’, according to Dana White, is next in line to rematch reigning champ Dricus Du Plessis sometime next year. However, with the absolute beating Chimaev put on Bobby Knuckles, many fans are clamoring that Strickland be passed over.

That would have been bad enough for the former champ. But Dricus Du Plessis twisted the knife even further after he recently said he wanted to “100%” fight Chimaev before Strickland. But the final decision, of course, rests with Dana White and his top brass. Moreover, the UFC hasn’t indicated any such change in the middleweight title picture after initially hinting at Chimaev’s contender status at the UFC 308 post-fight presser.

Bo Nickal, on the other hand, is gearing up to face an unranked middleweight veteran in the form of Paul Craig in November and is nowhere near fighting Chimaev at the moment. Nickal is unranked, whereas Chimaev is ranked at #3. But if and when Nickal makes his way to the top, he at least has a pre-existing storyline and feud with ‘Borz’.

What do you think about Sonnen’s take on a possible Khamzat Chimaev vs. Bo Nickal fight?