Bo Nickal says he was offered Robert Whittaker at UFC on ABC 6

Bo Nickal says he was one of the names approached to replace Khamzat Chimaev at UFC on ABC 6.

Chimaev (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) withdrew from Saturday’s headliner against Robert Whittaker (25-7 MMA, 16-5 UFC) at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to cause of illness. The UFC called numerous fighters as potential replacements – including Nickal, before landing on Ikram Aliskerov.

Nickal (6-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) revealed that he received a call, but was unreachable for days before seeing the message.

“I got a call, yes,” Nickal said on his YouTube channel. “Unfortunately, I received a call while I was in the mountains of Montana and didn’t get cell service again for three days. I got back to cell service with a few texts saying, “Call me back, call me back, call me back,” and it was too late.

Nickal admits traveling halfway around the world to fight Whittaker wouldn’t have been ideal, but says the UFC’s offer was significant.

“I won’t divulge numbers, but they were up there,” Nickal said. “But it was simply too late. I couldn’t even really think about it because they already had it all figured out, how they were going to do it because I was gone.

Nickal thinks a fight with Chimaev is inevitable, but questions his recent inactivity. Chimaev has only fought once in the last two years – a majority victory over Kamaru Usman at UFC 294.

“The guy loses his aura a little bit,” Nickal said. “I don’t think he overtrains. I think he’s done partying. I don’t know. What else would it be? I just heard rumors about him and Till and stuff like crazy stuff.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 6.