Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has fought a who’s-who of top ranked fighters over the years at 185lbs and after watching rising star Bo Nickal’s latest submission victory over Cody Brundage at UFC 300 he believes the wrestling ace still has improvements to make before he’ll be worthy of competing at that level.
“I don’t care for Cody Brundage very much,” Whittaker said on his MMArcade Podcast. “I think Bo Nickal … I think we saw some potential holes in Bo Nickal’s game. Bo Nickal finally got a guy that he couldn’t just do what he wanted with. Cody Brundage isn’t the best fighter in the world, but yeah, I think Bo Nickal fought a guy that can kind of wrestle, kind of strike, and he didn’t look as good as he has previously.
“He’s been running through shoe-ins for him. It is what it is. I think he’s got some work to do before he’s ready to fight top 10 dudes.”
Though the 28-year-old Nickal believes he’ll one day become middleweight champion, it’s possible he at least partially agrees with Whittaker as he was critical of his own performance at UFC 300 and in an interview earlier this week indicated that he doesn’t expect to go up against a top 15 ranked opponent this year.
