Bo Nickal's attempt to bulk up caused a difficult weight cut for UFC on ESPN 67.
Nickal (7-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) meets Reinier de Ridder (19-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in a middleweight bout in Saturday's co-main event (ESPN2, ESPN+) at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.
Nickal posted a video of him weighing in at 222.6 pounds entering fight week, which raised many concerns about his ability to make the 186-pound limit Friday.
Was Nickal trolling? The wrestling standout said no with a smile and admitted to coming into fight week heavier than usual after he tried to put on some muscle for this camp.
"A big portion of this fight camp for me has been bulking up," Nickal told CBS Sports. "I wanted to get a little bit bigger for the weight, and so might have went a little too far with it, but that's just – now I'm suffering a little bit of the consequences of that. So it's part of the weight-cut process, and I've never missed weight before in my life since I've been 5 years old wrestling. I've weighed in hundreds of times, so I feel confident I'll be able to get it done and yeah, it might stress people out a little bit, but it's just part of the job for me."
Nickal did his job, weighing in at 185.5 during Friday's official weigh-ins.
Nickal explained why he decided to bulk up after defeating Paul Craig at UFC 309 this past November.
"I'm gaining some weight, and as you can see in the last fight with Paul Craig, I was undersized," Nickal said. "He's a big middleweight, so putting some mass on was a big priority these last few months."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Des Moines: Bo Nickal was 'suffering' from weight cut
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