In theory, the matchup between Khamzat Chimaev and Bo Nickal is a fight fan’s dream. Both are acclaimed wrestlers with the Chechen being a Swedish wrestling national champion, and his American counterpart being an NCAA Division-1 wrestler. Both have a track record of finishing fights, and both are undefeated in their careers. However, in practice, this matchup has been called to question over Bo Nickal’s last appearance in the Octagon at UFC 309. Add to this, Nickal has also previously directed thrash talk towards the Chechen phenom. Their feud has been simmering over the last year as the duo occasionally went back and forth trashing each other’s wrestling.

While the embers of a ‘violent Khamzat’ seemingly died down with the advent of the new, mellow, and respectful version of Chimaev in the past couple of months, ‘Borz’ has apparently taken great exception to Nickal’s comments saying he would dominate Chimaev in a wrestling match. Furthermore, Chimaev, like many fans it seems like, wasn’t impressed by Bo Nickal‘s showing at UFC 309 against Paul Craig, with audiences in the arena chanting ‘overrated’ at the American fighter.

“@NoBickal F**k you I beat your a** n***a,” Chimaev said in a now-deleted tweet, reminiscent of the ‘Borz’ we saw when he picked beefs with Paulo Costa and Joaquin Buckley.

Some in the comments section have expressed concerns about the veracity of the Chimaev’s post. But if it is true, the rivalry and bad blood between the American and the Chechen remains fraught. However, it seems like Bo Nickal is aware of where he’s at in his journey, and even acknowledged Chimaev’s position in the rankings.

Why Bo Nickal ‘knows’ he has long way to go before challenging Khamzat Chimaev

Khamzat Chimaev is coming off a fantastic win over the legendary Robert Whittaker, while Nickal took the unranked Paul Craig to an underwhelming decision win in his last fight. ‘Borz’, of course, looks set to fight for the middleweight title soon, while Nickal still has some work to do before he is at a level to even call out Chimaev. And no one agrees with that more than Nickal himself.

“I feel like, yeah, a lot of people have said that when you look at matchups, that I’m probably the only guy that could really match him [Khamzat] in that department. And I think that hopefully, eventually, that’s a fight that we’ll see. I got a lot of work to do. There’s a lot of fights in between now and then for me because he is right up there at the title shot,” the NCAA D1 champ said in an interview before UFC 309.

Of course, there is no doubt about Nickal’s ability on the ground, and it is important to remember that he is just seven fights into his career. The Penn State alum has been fighting professionally only for three years, which is less than the time Chimaev has been in the UFC alone. But Nickal, despite the criticism he is getting for his UFC 309 performance, might still be good enough to win against UFC veterans.

With more experience and improvements to his game, he could almost definitely become a UFC champion. What do you think about the animosity between Khamzat Chimaev and Bo Nickal? Who do you think wins if they end up fighting? Sound off in the comments below.