UFC Denver’s Andre Petroski Continues to Hope for Future Bo Nickal Matchup

Andre Petroski has been calling Bo Nickal out since before the decorated wrestler’s Ultimate Fighting Championship debut — and he continues to do so.

Petroski started calling out the three-time NCAA national champion for a grappling or MMA matchup before his unanimous decision win over Wellington Turman in November 2022. Petroski doubled down on his callout after a spilt-decision win over Gerald Meerschaert at UFC 292 in August 2023.

However, Petroski has since suffered consecutive stoppage losses against Michel Pereira and Jacob Malkoun. Petroski will now look to return to the win column against Josh Fremd at UFC on ESPN 59 on Saturday. Petroski believes a win over Fremd could put him right back into talks of a potential matchup against Nickal.

Malkoun recently announced a matchup with Nickal for UFC 302 in New Jersey, which was immediately denied by the latter’s management and ultimately didn’t come to fruition. However, Petroski had deemed the announcement to be true as he thought it was a stylistically favorable matchup for Nickal.

Nickal’s first two UFC outings ended in first-round stoppage wins against less-skilled opponents on the ground. While Nickal most recently submitted a grappler in Cody Brundage at UFC 300 this past April, it was the first time he saw the second round of a fight in his pro and amateur MMA career. However, the fact that Nickal has started fighting wrestlers gives Petroski hope of a potential clash down the line.

“I do think it could put me in a position to get a Bo Nickal fight… Obviously, Bo didn’t sign the contract to fight Malkoun. But when it was announced I thought that it was official,” Petroski said on Just Scrap Radio. “I was just thinking that it makes total sense that they watched our fight and they saw how easily I took him down and they were like, ‘Oh, this is a perfect matchup for Bo.’ On paper Bo would be a way higher level wrestler. But nonetheless they are looking to fight grapplers, which was not what they wanted to do before. They only fought [Jamie] Pickett, or Val [Woodburn]… They fought no grapplers, no one that could grapple. Then he fought Cody Brundage, who’s a grappler. I imagine I’m somewhere down the line.”