Bo Nickal just made his UFC debut at UFC 285 on March 4th, 2023 and he put on an impressive display to improve his perfect professional MMA record even further. Nickal is a three-time NCAA champion and Dan Hodge Trophy winner who has become one of the most exciting prospects to make the move to MMA in recent memory thanks to his incredible wrestling pedigree. Nickal’s career has progressed at a phenomenal rate, ever since he took his first amateur fight at the end of 2021 and won by putting his opponent to sleep with a choke. Within just a few months of that impressive performance he was already preparing to make the transition for amateur competition to professional MMA.
He won his first professional fight by knockout in just thirty-three seconds and was offered an opportunity to compete on Dana White’s Contender Series with a 1-0 record. Nickal then made great use of that opportunity and submitted his opponent in just a little over a minute, but was asked to compete on another DWCS card in order to get more experience in the sport. He wasn’t deterred by this though, as he submitted his third professional opponent even quicker again and was offered a contract to compete for the UFC this time around.
Bo Nickal was scheduled to make his promotional debut at UFC 285 on March 4th, 2023 against Jamie Pickett. Thanks to the amount of hype surrounding his blossoming career, Nickal became one of a handful of fighters who made their UFC debut on the main card of a PPV and he didn’t disappoint at all. Although Nickal made an error in the early striking exchange, he recovered quickly and took down his opponent with relative ease. From there, Nickal managed to lock up a tight arm-triangle choke and forced Pickett to submit after less than three minutes of action. He was awarded a $50,000 performance bonus for his efforts and it looks as though Ben Askren might be right, Nickal may very well be the best wrestler in the UFC right now.
