Bo Nickal wants to be an undeniable UFC champion.

Nickal (6-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) takes on Paul Craig (17-8-1 MMA, 9-8-1 UFC) in a middleweight bout Nov. 16 on the UFC 309 main card at Madison Square Garden. Despite his dominance in the octagon, Nickal has opted to take an adequate amount of time between each fight. He continues to get criticized for his lack of activity, but the standout wrestler explains how his situation is different.

“For me, the most important thing is developing, and I don’t want to skip steps on development,” Nickal said on the “MightyCast” podcast. “You mentioned Diego Lopes. … These guys have 20-plus pro fights. He feels he’s ready to go. I fought six times in a little over two years. So, is that infrequent? I wouldn’t say it’s infrequent. I think people maybe forget that I’ve only been fighting since the summer of 2022 professionally. But with that being said, I think it’s really a good thing because people want to see me fight. They want to see me compete, and personally I want to compete as much as I can, but at the end of the day, it’s like, let’s say I fight a ranked guy next, then I fight a top five guy, and then I’m fighting for the title. It’s not like this long path that I have to get to where I want to go.

“So for me, the development and the improvement, a lot of it has to happen in training. I feel like I can compete with and beat the best guys in the world right now, but I don’t want it to be competitive when it happens. So, when I go out there and I’m competing for the belt, I want it to look like a masterclass where this guy’s not even on my level. I think right now there’s a lot of improvements that I need to make to get to that point. I think that it’s not all 100 percent up to me with the timing of how things work out, but I’m going to do my best to be prepared. And I feel like I’ve been put in a position where I have to make those improvements in training, and I don’t have the luxury of being able to get 15-20 fights before I’m there. Like I’m realistically probably going to be there at 10-11 fights.”

With his experience and notable wins over former UFC light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill and top contender Magomed Ankalaev, Craig presents Nickal’s toughest test to date on paper.

However, oddsmakers still have Nickal as a heavy favorite. According to DraftKings, Nickal is a -1000 favorite over Craig, who is a +600 underdog.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

ASTON VILLA conceded one of the most bizarre penalties in Champions League history on Wednesday night.

Villa boss Unai Emery slammed Tyron Mings’ bizarre decision to PICK UP the ball as “the biggest mistake I witnessed in my career”.

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Mings gifted Club Brugge a penalty in the second half when he was passed the ball inside the area by Emi Martinez from a goal-kick and decided to bend down and pick it up.

It can only be assumed that Mings had a lapse in concentration and thought he had been rolled the ball to take the goal-kick himself.

But referee Tobias Stieler stuck to the letter of the law and pointed to the spot, a decision that cost Villa all three points as Brugge captain Hans Vanaken converted the resulting penalty to score the only goal of the game.

Former Premier League referee and SunSport columnist Mark Halsey gives his verdict on the controversial decision that marred Villa’s defeat to Club Brugge...

Speaking exclusively to SunSport Halsey explained that official Stieler made the right call and said that Aston Villa can have “no complaints whatsoever”.

He said: “We see it week in week out in every league around the globe, where the goalkeeper takes a quick goal kick giving it to the defender, and the defender plays it away.”

Adding: “The referee has no option whatsoever to to give that penalty because the ball is in play and it’s a it’s a schoolboy error by by Tyrone Mings.

“It’s just unbelievable for a player of his calibre to do what he did in the second half.

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“So Aston Villa can have no complaints whatsoever.”

The incident was remarkably similar to Arsenal centre-back Gabriel’s blunder against Bayern Munich in the Champions League last season.

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The Brazilian defender was let off the hook that night with Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg saying that it was a “kid’s mistake” that wasn’t in the spirit of the game to punish a team for.

Halsey reckons you can feel sorry for Mings, but the decision ultimately has to be a penalty by the letter of the law.

He added: “Tyrone Mings needs to have a look at himself and ask himself, What on earth was I doing?

“Listen, yes. You do feel a little bit for him, but they’re professional footballers. They should know the laws of the game.

“And as I say It’s a quick goal kick and, once the goal kick has been taken the ball is in play.

“So, as I said before, Aston Villa could have no complaints at the award of a penalty by the referee.”

Villa players also found themselves complaining that the referee hadn’t blown his whistle to restart play yet, but Halsey has clarified there’s no substance in that argument either.

He explained: “The referee doesn’t need to blow his whistle in that situation to restart play. It’s just ‘away we go’.”

Villa’s defeat knocked them off their perch in Europe and ended their 100% start to the Champions League this season.

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Reinier de Ridder had a lot of reasons he wanted to sign with the UFC after leaving ONE Championship but staying busy might sit near the top of his list.

After he was shelved for all of 2023 with only one fight booked in 2024, the former two-division champion was happy to leave the Singapore based promotion so he could begin working towards a much more active schedule with his new fighting home. He didn’t have to wait long after inking his deal with his first fight booked on Saturday against fellow grappler Gerald Meerschaert in a featured bout at UFC Vegas 100.

Obviously, de Ridder was very happy to know the UFC plans to keep him busy and now it’s his job to show the promotion he was worth the investment.

“That’s one of the major plusses [signing with UFC],” de Ridder told MMA Fighting. “I even started calling out heavyweights [in ONE Championship] because there were no fights. I’m not making that mistake again. Hopefully, I’m going to make it a beautiful year.

“It’s crazy. For some reason, the stars seem to be aligning. Now I just need to knock it out of the park.”

While his only real focus remains on Meerschaert this Saturday, de Ridder addressed the rest of the middleweight division with hopes to jump in the deep end of the division sooner rather than later.

Even as an observer from outside the promotion, de Ridder always kept a watchful eye on the UFC and he knows there are plenty of potential matchups awaiting him.

“Hopefully after this, I’m looking to make a statement in this fight, announce my joining the UFC with a nice performance and then hopefully I’ll get a crack at some top level guys,” de Ridder said. “There’s so many good guys.

“Like [Sean] Strickland, like [Israel] Adesanya, Dricus [du Plessis], we have some history. I fought in the same organization he did. Didn’t get a chance to fight him at that point so hopefully it’s going to be on the biggest stage this time. But even like the entire top 10 are full of killers. There’s a lot of guys that have seen some inactivity. Line them up.”

There are a couple of names in particular in the UFC that have drawn de Ridder’s interest just because it’s a chance to test his grappling against other top notch ground specialists.

In fact, de Ridder definitely plans on watching UFC 309, which takes place one week after his debut, when multi-time NCAA champion wrestler Bo Nickal makes his fourth appearance for the promotion after going 3-0 with three finishes to start his career.

Nickal is slated to face Paul Craig in a featured bout on the pay-per-view main card and while de Ridder certainly doesn’t have any ill will towards the veteran Scotsman, he can’t help but throw out a suggestion that he’d be ready to step in on short notice if the opportunity was presented to him.

“Khamzat [Chimaev] and Bo Nickal would both be amazing,” de Ridder said. “[Bo Nickal] might be a nice next step. So maybe we do something to Paul Craig, distract him a little bit and jump in?

“That’s a fun one, right? I’m down for that. So Paul Craig, take a hike.”

All jokes aside, de Ridder believes those kinds of options are now available to him in the UFC but first things first he has to get through Meerschaert on Saturday.

When that was the offer made for his debut, de Ridder didn’t hesitate to say yes even though it actually interrupted the plans he made for his training camp to get ready for his first fight in the UFC.

“I was pretty familiar [with Gerald] because I’ve been training with him for a little bit,” de Ridder revealed. “I know what he brings to the table.

“I was planning to spend my camp in Miami with Henri [Hooft] and the guys [at Kill Cliff FC] but then when I got the name, I had to send Henri a text that he might be the wrong corner again.”

On paper this might be a grappler’s dream match between two prolific submission specialists, although many times those kinds of fights end up turning into striking affairs.

De Ridder is ready for whatever gets thrown at him but he promises at some point he’s going to test his grappling skills against Meerschaert.

“I need to [take this fight down to the canvas],” de Ridder explained. “I need to represent jiu-jitsu so I’m going to try and hit him with some good shots but it’s going to go to the ground, 100 percent.”

Two fighters have withdrawn from UFC 309 less than two weeks before the event.

Light heavyweight Azamat Murzakanov and featherweight Lucas Almeida are out of their respective Nov. 16 bouts that were scheduled for Madison Square Garden in New York.

Four people with knowledge of the changes recently informed MMA Junkie of them but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.

Murzakanov (30-9 MMA, 11-7 UFC) was expected to fight Nikita Krylov (14-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in a UFC-ranked battle, but withdrew for undisclosed reasons. It is unclear if Krylov will remain on the card.

Almeida (15-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC) is also out for reasons undisclosed. He was scheduled to fight David Onama (12-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC), who will remain on the card against a new opponent to be determined. News of Almeida’s withdrawal was first reported by MMA Fighting.

• Champion Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic – for heavyweight title
• Michael Chandler vs. Charles Oliveira – five-round bout
• Viviane Aruajo vs. Karine Silva
• Paul Craig vs. Bo Nickal
• Eryk Anders vs. Chris Weidman
• Jhonata Diniz vs. Marcin Tybura
• Mauricio Ruffy vs. James Llontop
• Nikita Krylov vs. TBA
• Jonathan Martinez vs. Marcus McGhee
• Damon Jackson vs. Jim Miller
• David Onama vs. TBA
• Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Mickey Gall
• Oban Elliott vs. Bassil Hafez
• Veronica Hardy vs. Eduarda Moura

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.