Chael Sonnen expected better matchmaking for Bo Nickal’s next fight.
Nickal (5-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) opened up as a whopping -1450 favorite in his upcoming fight against Cody Brundage (10-5 MMA, 4-4 UFC) at UFC 300 on April 13 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“In Bo’s last contest, he was a 24-1 favorite,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “It represented the biggest disparity, the biggest (betting) line, in the history of the UFC. Let’s look at numbers.
“Bo Nickal is 27 years old. He’s had five fights. His longest fight went 2 minutes and 40 something seconds. We’ve now got him in another fight on (UFC 300). He’s a 14-1 favorite. Now, 14-1 favorite is about half as big of a favorite as he was in his last fight, but I can assure you he will be the biggest favorite on the card.”
Sonnen pointed to Khamzat Chimaev, Conor McGregor and Brock Lesnar as examples of stars who have been fast tracked to the top. With Nickal a massive favorite once again, Sonnen questions why he isn’t getting the same treatment.
“Why are we doing this? There is no reason to do this fight,” Sonnen said. “I’m just trying to understand. Is this a numbers situation? Do we need to get Bo X amount of fights before he goes in for a title? Do we need to get Bo X amount of fights before he goes into a top-five (matchup)? Do we need to get him X amount of fights before he goes into a rankings match?”
Nickal landed on the UFC’s historic 300th pay-per-view event – a card UFC CEO Dana White promised would be stacked top to bottom. In his two UFC fights, Nickal opened up the pay-per-view main card, but Sonnen wonders where he’ll be placed for UFC 300.
“If he’s not put on the main card, we’re going to have to look around and go, ‘What are we doing it for?’” Sonnen said. “Why would we do a squash match, according to the oddsmakers, with an undefeated star who’s 27 years young against Cody Brundage on an undercard?”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.
