The UFC world went into a frenzy of speculation, trying to recover from the blow of Khamzat Chimaev pulling out of his fight against Robert Whittaker. ‘Borz’ was all set to perform at the UFC’s debut in Saudi Arabia, but his persistent illness prevented him from doing that. And now, the bout has taken a different turn with Whittaker pitted against Ikram Aliskerov. Right after Chimaev pulled out of the fight, the MMA world began speculating on who was going to fight ‘The Reaper’. And one of the names that sprouted up was Bo Nickal.

Nickal was one of the first fighters to get a call to step in Chimaev’s stead and fight the middleweight champion. However, despite the massive paycheck, the American mixed martial artist couldn’t take up Dana White’s offer to save UFC Saudi Arabia and the reason behind the same might take many by surprise. 

Bo Nickal confirms getting the call to step in for Khamzat Chimaev 

In a recent episode of ‘Nickals and Dimes’, Bo Nickal was asked if he got a call from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to fight ‘The Reaper’ instead of ‘Borz’. It was indeed a question that the entire combat sports community was wondering about. And the mixed martial artist affirmed that the rumors were true by saying, “I did get a call.”

But why didn’t he take up the fight? Being the title event, the fight would have filled Nickal’s pockets. But alas! He was up in the peaks at Montana and out of cellular service when the MMA promotion sought him out. Nickal recollected, “Unfortunately, I got a call while I was on the mountains of Montana, and I didn’t get back to cell service for 3 days. I came back to cell service to a few text messages saying,’ Call me back, call me back, call me back!’ And it was too late.”

The 28-year-old further recalled, “And, I’m not gonna like, disclose numbers, but, they’re up there. But it was like, it was just too late. I couldn’t even really consider it because they had already kind of figured everything out, the way they were doing it because I was gone.”

With Bo Nickal out of cellular service, Dana White had to save the main event at UFC’s debut in Riyadh by reaching out to Aliskerov and he gladly accepted the offer. According to the UFC CEO, the Russian was the contender who could replace Chimaev and make sure that the MMA world remains entertained. 

Why did Dana White choose Ikram Aliskerov as Chimaev’s replacement?

After Chimaev pulled out of the fight, White took to X and delivered the disappointing news to the fighting world. But that came along with a revelation of who would replace the veteran mixed martial artist. White pointed his fingers at Aliskerov as he seemed to believe that the Russian was the perfect contender to fight Whittaker as Chimaev’s replacement. 

The CEO revealed that Aliskerov has a record of 15 wins and a single loss. Surprisingly, that one loss was against Chimaev. With only three fights in his UFC career, he has successfully impressed the UFC head honcho. In his first-ever fight in the Octagon, the 31-year-old secured a win via submission in the first round while both of his next fights ended up with him rising victorious in the first round, via KO/TKO.

White typed in, “So this dude is a legit contender in only his 3rd UFC fight, if he gets a knockout against Robert Whittaker, he’ll go into a tie for the longest active UFC knockout streak.”

Without a doubt, Ikram Aliskerov has the potency of entertaining the fight fans. But would you have liked it better if Whittaker was pitted against Bo Nickal? Let us know in the comments down below.