Bo Nickal on UFC title challenger Dricus du Plessis: 'Easy money for me'

Bo Nickal wants to take on and beat the best in the UFC and one of them could be Dricus du Plessis. The rising middleweight prospect sees next title challenger as “easy money.”

Nickal won his latest UFC fight at UFC 290 over the weekend by first-round TKO. He’s now 2-0 in the promotion and 5-0 overall as a professional MMA fighter.

The former Penn State wrestling national champion spoke to the media following his win and got to see du Plessis in action from afar.

“Oh jeez, looks like Dricus is gonna finish him,” Nickal said to FullSend MMA while seeing du Plessis’ fight against Robert Whittaker on the screen. That’s crazy… That is crazy. Hats off to him. I feel like I respect Whittaker a lot. He’s such a tough dude. But, yeah, he got it done. That’s a fight that I’ll have eventually, I’m sure. I don’t know that he beats the champion, but, you know, I’m sure we’ll fight, and I think that’s easy money for me.”

The two fought on the same PPV card, with du Plessis’ win over Whittaker putting him in position for the next crack at champion Israel Adesanya.

du Plessis is 20-2 in his MMA career and is 6-0 in the UFC. He rose to No. 1 in the UFC middleweight rankings following his win over the former champion Whittaker.

The fight against Adesanya has yet to be booked, but it’s anticipated to happen later this year. Adesanya reclaimed his belt over rival Alex Pereira earlier this year and is considered one of the best middleweight champions in UFC history.

Nickal made no bones about his aspirations as a mixed-martial artist, so maybe du Plessis is part of that. For a guy who barely lost in college and won three national titles at Penn State, UFC gold could very well be in his future.

Nickal previously called out middleweight champions Adesanya and Pereira for their lack of grappling skills.

At that time, Pereira TKO’d Adesanya to claim the belt. Adesanya would get it back in April.

“That’s a relatively, I would say – I’m not going to say ‘easy’ fight, because he’s dangerous,” Nickal said of Pereira in February. “But as far styles go, that’s a great matchup for me. I’ve watched their fight a couple times, and the grappling (is where I’d win). The striking exchanges are super impressive – that goes without saying. They’re absolutely elite strikers. But when they get ahold of each other, it’s just almost, like, funny.”

Nickal and du Plessis could be on a collision course one day for a title or a big fight within the division. But for now, we’ll have to put that one on the back burner while the UFC decides who to give Nickal next as he begins his ascension.