Henry Cejudo explains why fighting Bo Nickal “wouldn’t be good” for Israel Adesanya

Henry Cejudo believes Bo Nickal would beat Israel Adesanya if they ended up fighting.

Nickal is currently unranked at middleweight but has a outstanding wrestling pedigree and many have pegged him as a future contender. One of those believers is Cejudo who thinks Nickal would beat Adesanya in a potential contest as he thinks it is a bad matchup for the former champ.

👀Henry Cejudo believes Bo Nickal would beat Israel Adesanya if they were to fight:

"If Bo Nickal was to get a guy like Israel Adesanya now, it wouldn't be good for Israel especially watching him get choked out, like Bo Nickal would do a number on him just stylistically"… pic.twitter.com/h9fHtTBktE

— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) August 27, 2024

“If Bo Nickal was to get a guy like Israel Adesanya now, it wouldn’t be good for Israel. Epecially watching him get choked out. Like, Bo Nickal would do a number on him just stylistically,” Cejudo said to Home of Fight.

Although Cejudo thinks Nickal would beat Adesanya, it’s unlikely the fight will happen anytime soon. But, if it did it would be a highly-anticipated bout and a massive test for Bo Nickal. If he were to beat Israel Adesanya as Henry Cejudo thinks, Nickal would immediately become a title contender at middleweight.

It is also a fight Bo Nickal has called for well before he even fought in the UFC. In November of 2022, Nickal was confident he was a horrible matchup for Adesanya as he thought he would submit him with ease.

“I don’t really know how he’s gonna stop me from bringing him to the ground and submitting him,” Nickal said to Michael Bisping. “I get it. Yeah, there’s always going to be a chance that I get knocked out. But, we’ve seen this story too many times in this sport. We know how it goes.”

Bo Nickal is 6-0 as a pro and coming off a second-round submission win over Cody Brundage at UFC 300. The former Penn State wrestler is 3-0 in the UFC as he also has wins over Val Woodburn and Jamie Pickett.

As for Israel Adesanya, he suffered a submission loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305 for the middleweight title.