Bo Nickal raised eyebrows earlier this week when he commented ‘gonna be a long week’ while showing himself tipping the scales at over 222lbs, meaning he has a whopping 37lbs to cut ahead of his fight with Reiner de Ridder on Saturday night.

Some have suggested it’s just gamesmanship on the 29-year-old Nickal’s part, but he claims it’s due to having bulked up for his latest fight as he looks to extend his unbeaten 7-0 career record.

“A big part of my last camp these last few months has been to bulk up,” Nickal told MMA Fighting. “I felt like that’s something that I wanted to focus on was getting my weight a little higher and making sure that I’m a full-size middleweight. So coming in at the weight, it’s just part of the job for me. Bringing the weight down is something that I’m used to.

“With wrestling, I’ve weighed in in hundreds of times since I’ve been at a young age and it’s business as usual for me. So that was definitely a little more than what I’m used to, but part of the job. No worries. …

“It was a little heavier than what I expected, and I was wearing a hoodie and stuff like that, so it was a little less than what we saw on the scale, but, yeah, I knew I had a lot of work to do at that moment, but it is again, part of the job.”

Check out Nickal’s fight week weigh-in below and see whether you believe he’s telling the truth about how much he weighs.