UFC 309 marks the Madison Sq. Backyard debut for the largest blue chipper within the sport, Bo Nickal.
Nicely, kind of.
OK, probably not.
The 27-year-old wrestling wunderkind out of Penn State has by no means fought on the Backyard. He’ll break the seal on that distinction Saturday night time in opposition to Scotland’s Paul Craig.
However Nickal is all too aware of the World’s Most Well-known Area, the place loads of tears have been shed upon falling quick the one time he wasn’t the highest collegiate wrestler in his weight class.
As a 19-year-old freshman in 2016, the top-ranked 174-pounder in Division I settled for runner-up standing in opposition to Ohio State’s Myles Martin.
“It’s funny, I was at the Rangers game [Tuesday] night, and it was like, a lot of emotion coming back because I was walking backstage and I saw, just like, some of the spots that I was, like, crying in and stuff like that,” Nickal recalled with The Put up throughout this week’s UFC 309 media day.mentioned. “And I was like, ‘Wow, that’s so crazy. It was right there almost 10 years ago,’ and now we’re back.”
Nickal (6-0, six finishes) usually doesn’t do shedding. He fell simply as soon as extra as a sophomore on his method to three NCAA particular person titles and an general 120-3 NCAA file.
Although his Olympic goals got here up quick three years in the past on the U.S. crew trials, he’s unbeaten since making the transition to MMA.
Elite wrestlers can go far on this sport, and Nickal is among the most pedigreed to make the soar. It’s on the middle of why there’s a lot pleasure within the combat recreation for the way far he can go.
The UFC rapidly caught wind and might need signed Nickal proper after profitable his professional debut in 33 seconds in June 2022, but it surely opted to have him compete twice on the prospect-mining Dana White’s Contender Collection first.
Chalk that up extra to utilizing Nickal’s already simmering identify worth to attract eyeballs to the UFC pipeline program.
As prospects go, Nickal is a promotional unicorn.
He has competed solely on pay-per-view programming, debuting at UFC 285 final yr on the pay-per-view portion of Jon Jones’ heavyweight debut.
(Jones lastly places the championship he gained that night time on the road for the primary time in Saturday’s major occasion in opposition to Stipe Miocic.)
Though he says he would combat on the intimate UFC Apex, he’s good sufficient to see what’s happening with the administration of his budding profession.
“I think that it just goes to show the type of draw I am, how many people want to watch me, and the support that I have from the wrestling community and that growing community of fans,” Nickal mentioned of his marquee placement on tentpole occasions. “I don’t think that they’re putting me on pay-per-view cards, UFC 300, MSG, these massive shows for no reason, right? It’s a little bit to build me, but it’s also because a lot of people want to watch me.”
Most of their third yr of preventing are nonetheless on the regional scene, in lots of circumstances taking 5 or extra bouts a yr to construct expertise — and earn some cash, which isn’t plentiful on the regional scene.
Nickal’s distinctive mixture of decades-honed wrestling prowess and identify worth have him incomes a extra snug dwelling than simply about anybody with merely a half-dozen professional bouts on his ledger, but it surely’s come at the price of in-cage expertise.
The UFC has saved him at a tempo of two fights per yr.
Nickal acknowledges the double-edged sword he’s working with.
“It hurts because I just don’t have the cage time that other people have. I’ve had less than 10 minutes in the cage in total in my pro career, and most people get that in one fight,” Nickal explains. “As far as experience goes, that’s a negative. But you look at the positives. I’m healthy; I, obviously, have a 100 percent finish rate, and a lot of people want to see me fight. For me, again, the main focus is just developing, improving, getting better. The result of the fight is kind of secondary, right?”
Craig (17-8-1, 17 finishes) represents the following huge stepping stone in a profession some challenge may take off by leaps and bounds.
A win over the submission ace, who has beforehand appeared within the UFC’s divisional rankings however has misplaced 4 of his final 5, might set him up for a ranked opponent subsequent yr. And already some envision a not-too-distant future wherein he fights for the UFC middleweight championship.
However Nickal is snug with the cadence of his rise. He’s good with the method of including abilities and bettering whereas gaining cage time.
UFC gold, he expects, will come, however in due time.
“I think I got a lot of work to do, in my opinion,” Nickal says. “I’m always gonna have a lot of work to do. Even when I’m the champ, there’s still a lot of development to be done, so … there’s no limits on the timeline of the way that it needs to go, in my mind. I’m just focused on development, improving, getting better. If it happens in a year, great. It happens in three years, great. I just know where I’m headed. I know my trajectory, and that’s really what I’m concerned with.”
