Bo Nickal has made an impressive transition from being an elite wrestler to a contender in MMA, and now he’s just been promoted to purple belt in BJJ too. The promotion has come in the wake of one of the biggest wins of Nickal’s career so far; a third-round knockout of Rodolfo Vieira at UFC 322. Although the finish came from strikes in the end, Nickal also made good use of his grappling skills throughout the fight too. He was able to shut down every single one of Vieira’s takedown attempts without much issue, and he even scored a pair of takedowns himself.
Obviously the incredibly high level of wrestling that Nickal has done over the years was a huge factor, but he also threatened Vieira with a guillotine in the first round too. The win brought Nickal’s record professional MMA record up to 8-1 and this is far from the first time that he’s been able to display his Jiu-Jitsu. He’s won 4 of his fights by submission, including one over UFC veteran Cody Brundage. He’s also faced several elite grapplers over the course of his MMA career already, and even challenged himself by facing top competitors in professional grappling events in the past too.
His most famous was a modified-rules match against Gordon Ryan and although he lost by submission, just the fact he was willing to step in there against one of the best to ever do it was impressive. Just a few years later he was competing against experienced black belts at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 2 under standard Jiu-Jitsu rules, and he gave a great account of himself. He registered two draws at the event against Eliot Kelly and Oliver Taza, but he didn’t look out of place in either of those matchups. It’s unlikely that Nickal competes in Jiu-Jitsu very often now that his MMA career has really taken off, but he’ll still get to use those skills in the cage regardless.
Bo Nickal announced the news that he had been promoted to purple belt in BJJ in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
