has a few ideas about his next opponent in the UFC, but doesn't expect to face another highly touted opponent like this .
Won a victory at Nickal is already looking to the future and hopes to face ranked competition soon as he continues to develop and advance in his career. While there are plenty of names in the top 15, the three-time NCAA wrestler knows the UFC won't give him a pure striker like Magomedov just yet because they would kill one of their most hyped fighters with both of them having similar undefeated records in the octagon.
“They wouldn’t make it,” Nickal said of the fight when speaking to the newspaper Pound for pound Podcast. “It would be an easy fight, but for me there is no problem in this fight. But let’s talk about it realistically.”
When it comes to opponents the UFC might consider, Nickal believes he's reached the point where the rankings are a natural next step, but he's not aiming for the moon when it comes to opponents.
While he was careful not to single out anyone in particular, Nickal offered a few suggestions based on the fighters currently occupying spots near the bottom of the middleweight rankings.
“Every guy in the top 15, from [No. 15 to 10]“It’s a tough fight,” Nickal said. “There’s no one in the UFC who isn’t good, right? You can take any of these guys, even the guys I knock out and destroy, put them in a regional promotion and they're an all-star. You are the best in the entire organization. This is something for me, I'm really looking forward to fighting against the best. Anyone in the 10 to 15 range presents interesting tests and threats.
“I don’t know exactly the top 15, but I think people like it [Michel] Pereira, is here, Shara Bullet, [Roman] Kopylov, [Roman] Dolidze, [Paulo] Costa. Even a guy I know jumps up and down from 170 [185 pounds] But He has won many knockout victories. So guys like that are all interesting threats. They're all guys that I could have problems with, but at the same time I believe in my abilities, I believe in what I'm capable of, and the more I train and work on hitting more, The more I work on it in jiu-jitsu and when I combine it all together, I think I can dominate a lot of these guys too and make it look easy.”
As much as Nickal wants to achieve his ultimate goal of becoming UFC middleweight champion and eventually conquering the top of the pound-for-pound rankings, he is also quick to remind himself that compared to many of the opponents he faces who has little experience will soon be confronted.
That's one of the reasons Nickal was actually glad he spent 15 minutes in the octagon with Craig at UFC 309, because it gave him valuable time and experience after essentially defeating his first few opponents with no real resistance.
Now that he plans to face the top 15 fighters in the world, Nickal understands that there is no room for error.
“I’ve been fighting MMA professionally for a little over two years,” Nickal said. “I started in late summer 2022 and am now the main fighter at [Madison Square Garden] End of 2024. So where will I be at the end of 2026? I think the development is really high and all I have to do is stay on this path.
“I know the work I do every day. I don't think anyone puts in as much work as I do, not only when it comes to physical and technical training, but also film study and trying to develop my fight IQ. I don't think anyone watches as much film as I do. I think I can make up a lot of ground on these guys here and I will continue to do that.”
