News Bo Nickal calls Khamzat's wrestling 'trash': 'I wouldn't even say mid'

Kamzat is a wrestler he was Sweden's national champion 3x before mma.

And Sweden is pretty good wrestling country.

Sweden is good in greco, but guess if Khamzat choose to wrestle greco or did he mainly try to bully guys in freestyle?

I'm not familiar enough with wrestling prestige to know what that means (seriously). Like, is someone who's a national champion in the U.S. 10% better? 75% better? Is a typical D1 guy equivalent or more/less accomplished? And is it the same style of wrestling between both countries? That's why I said "probably" but even if I recant that portion of it (that wasn't really my point/intention), what I really mean is it's MMA. Pure wrestling ability is part of it, but, Edwards took down Usman.

Take a look at this post/thread: https://forums.sherdog.com/posts/171566670/

The tl;dr version is that in terms of pure freestyle wrestling pedigree, Bo is vastly more accomplished. Sweden is slightly above-average in freestyle, but not elite by any means. They are a Greco powerhouse and tend to focus the bulk of their efforts on that discipline and actively funnel their most talented wrestlers towards that discipline. Khamzat won multiple Swedish national championships in freestyle. He dabbled in Greco, but lost to some of Sweden's best in that ruleset. The Swedish talent pool in freestyle isn't insanely deep, so Khamzat's dominance in that realm -- while impressive -- isn't Earth-shattering. Prior to coming to Sweden, Khamzat also won a bronze medal at the junior (i.e. teenage) national level in Russia in freestyle.

Conversely, the United States has historically been neck-and-neck with Russia for generations in freestyle wrestling so the fact that Bo won a gold medal at the (senior) nationals in that discipline, made it to the finals of the Olympic Trials (only to be defeated by the guy who would win Olympic gold that year), and also took gold at the U23 Worlds says quite a bit. These accomplishments are simply head and shoulders above anything Chimaev accomplished in Sweden or in Russia at the junior level. He has also taken the scalps of some guys who have absolutely insane accolades on the freestyle wrestling scene.

Of course, before Bo began focusing on freestyle he wrestled folkstyle which is the American form of wrestling practiced in universities and high schools (the whole D1 thing you hear about). It is more similar to freestyle in terms of ruleset than it is to Greco, but it still has a number of core differences in terms of how matches play out, what techniques are permitted, and how points are awarded. That said, the talent pool is still quite deep and the level of athleticism needed to show the dominance Bo did in that sport is impressive in and of itself even if it isn't a 1-to-1 transition.

MMA wrestling... is a whole different beast. For what it's worth, I think Khamzat has shown a lot more in that regard while I'm not yet sold on Bo. He still has a lot of work to do, but granted he's still super young in this sport. Excited to see what both bring in the years to come, but until proven otherwise I think Chimaev is the more proven wrestler in an MMA context. Both have done an admirable job of blending a legitimate offensive submission arsenal into their wrestling top game is refreshing as fuck to see.
 
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If dana opened the floodgates and went purely on mma skills ignoring the money to be made all divisions would be 80% from dagestan and other similar countries

There are actually dagestanis fighters above lw division. How come none of them has sniffed the belt?
 
Cumshot is strong and aggressive with his tds and that's about it, skill wise he's maybe a mid level div 1 wrestler
 
Big words. I like them both and hope this fight happens next year.
 
Pi
Weird to see the UFC go the Bellator route and hype a 3-0 or 4-0 wrestler with practically no MMA experience. Will be interesting to see if he can rise or if he will be another Aaron Pico type.
Pico ain't done yet.
 
Couldn't even beat pillowfisted, inferior grappler Vettori with a 20 lb weight advantage lol

Let us know when Costa has a win over a fighter on the UFC roster
Yea, I can't get over that fight. I think Costa bagged it in since his disastrous title shot.
 
My favorite quote from the interview with respect to the MMA fan base:
"There is no other sport (MMA) where people know less and think they know more". He ain't wrong.
It's a rude thing for him to say.
Also, if he moves from confident to cocky, then he will be humbled.
 
Dude is pretty full of himself for having done absolutely nothing in his career thus far.

Yeah, dude may end up being for real but he’s going to eventually run into somebody he can’t steamroll then we’ll see what he’s really all about.
 
This dude is going to receive the rudest of awakenings at some point. It's apparent that he's talented and has potential, but his perception needs work. He's never having a wrestling match with Khamzat, that is a different game. He's clinging to this "I'm a better wrestler than Khamzat," cool. You are. But Khamzat is a much better fighter, the game you're playing.
 
Nickal talks a whole lot of shit.

We'll see how he does.

I think Khamzat is going to walk through Costa.

Costa struggled with Luke and wasnt able to finish him.

I do agree Khamzat will most likely wrestle Costa away but not based on the Costa/Luke fight.

Khamzat had a bit of a war against the much smaller Burns and looked tired in normal altitude.
Luke/Costa fought in altitude and I feel that if Khamzat was in place of either of those he would have probably looked bad and gassed also.
 
go ask Dana for anything other than a complete lay-up in your next fight
 
I admire his confidence. Give him a real competitor and let's see.
 
This is cringeworthy.. This man is talking way to much for his own good at this rate. Get some fights and try to cilmb the ladder first. You are atleast 2-3 years away from this fight..

Besides Khamzat Chimaev beats him even in a pure wrestling match. Chimaev is 3x times Swedish national champion just because you have been in a larger pool doesn't mean you can beat him head to head. Bo Nickal is insecure about his own wrestling creds but honestly it won't help in a wrestling match non of that will aid him.. Due to his insecurity about his own wrestling creds he has to go after others by putting them down and riding on their back this is just fuked up. You can't talk your way into relevance.

I don't give a fuk about which state you wrestled in you ain't walking thru a caucasus wrestler even one who competed in lesser compettive pool head to head pure wrestling match.

I hope they also do a wrestling match head to head.. This fool will be exposed he thinks Penn state will by default give him a W in a wrestling bout he is day dreaming
 
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This is cringeworthy.. This man is talking way to much for his own good at this rate. Get some fights and try to cilmb the ladder first. You are atleast 2-3 years away from this fight..

Besides Khamzat Chimaev beats him even in a pure wrestling match. Chimaev is 3x times Swedish national champion just because you have been in a larger pool doesn't mean you can beat him head to head. Bo Nickal is insecure about his own wrestling creds but honestly it won't help in a wrestling match non of that will aid him.. Due to his insecurity about his own wrestling creds he has to go after others by putting them down and riding on their back this is just fuked up. You can't talk your way into relevance.

I don't give a fuk about which state you wrestled in you ain't walking thru a caucasus wrestler even one who competed in lesser compettive pool head to head pure wrestling match.

I hope they also do a wrestling match head to head.. This fool will be exposed he thinks Penn state will by default give him a W in a wrestling bout he is day dreaming
In the past 11 years, Penn State has produced 5 Dan Hodge Trophy winners. What that is, is basically an MVP award like in football. David Taylor won 2 and won an Olympic Gold Medal. Bo Nickal also won 1 though lost to David Taylor in his Olympic run, but nobody beat David Taylor. The coach at Penn State went undefeated in college and also won a Gold Medal in the Olympics. They produce multiple National champions every single year. It is an elite school who's produced more talented wrestlers than Sweden has at any point recently and the results show it. Khamzat doesn't have the level of Bo Nickal's accomplishments.
 
This is cringeworthy.. This man is talking way to much for his own good at this rate. Get some fights and try to cilmb the ladder first. You are atleast 2-3 years away from this fight..

Besides Khamzat Chimaev beats him even in a pure wrestling match. Chimaev is 3x times Swedish national champion just because you have been in a larger pool doesn't mean you can beat him head to head. Bo Nickal is insecure about his own wrestling creds but honestly it won't help in a wrestling match non of that will aid him.. Due to his insecurity about his own wrestling creds he has to go after others by putting them down and riding on their back this is just fuked up. You can't talk your way into relevance.

I don't give a fuk about which state you wrestled in you ain't walking thru a caucasus wrestler even one who competed in lesser compettive pool head to head pure wrestling match.

I hope they also do a wrestling match head to head.. This fool will be exposed he thinks Penn state will by default give him a W in a wrestling bout he is day dreaming
His Swedish national championship isn't that great of an achievement. It's a smaller pool and it's not the preferred style of wrestling practiced in Sweden. Bo competed in a more competitive pool and he also has international competition experience. It doesn't mean Khamzat isn't a good wrestler but he isn't as accomplished as Bo.
 
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In the past 11 years, Penn State has produced 5 Dan Hodge Trophy winners. What that is, is basically an MVP award like in football. David Taylor won 2 and won an Olympic Gold Medal. Bo Nickal also won 1 though lost to David Taylor in his Olympic run, but nobody beat David Taylor. The coach at Penn State went undefeated in college and also won a Gold Medal in the Olympics. They produce multiple National champions every single year. It is an elite school who's produced more talented wrestlers than Sweden has at any point recently and the results show it. Khamzat doesn't have the level of Bo Nickal's accomplishments.

That is all in theory and wishy washy. You can't say hey look I come from larger fish pond but you need to smell the cafe there is no fuking guaraantee that he beats Khamzat in pure wrestling head to head. Khamzat was nearly perfect in his record and there is no evidence that he would have lost to any human being at that stage. Besides the US doesn't win the World comp and Olympics all time there are other countries with lesser fish pond that also win gold.

If Bo Nickal would assume he could have a free pass against an undefeated freestyler wrestler who comes from a better genetic pool then himself. Caucasus -- > The US.. Not in creds but wrestling background genes.

The entire caucasus has like 5-6 million combined but produce at the highest rate the best wrestlers in the world.

I don't see in a world where Bo Nickal can beat Khamzat Chimaev in a wrestling bout where both guys come prepared for a purely wrestling match forget MMA
 
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