Nicky Rodriguez has recently revealed that he’s actually had an offer to do bare knuckle MMA, and that he was offered ‘a pretty decent cheque’ to compete in the sport. This wouldn’t be the first time that Rodriguez has switched sports of course as he started out his combat sports career with wrestling throughout his youth, before eventually transitioning to BJJ. He’s since gone on to win a pair of silver medals at ADCC and proven that he’s among the best on the planet in the sport, so naturally a transition to MMA has come up before.
He recently appeared on the Jaxxon podcast and explained just how much a move to MMA has been on his mind:
“I think about it every day. I think I would do well. I do know that it would take a substantial amount of time to develop the striking and technique to compete at the highest level. I have some thoughts, like maybe I would fight for a substantial amount of money to pick some gym teacher somewhere or I’d fully commit and try to be the champ ‘cause that’s the kind of guy I am. Typically if I do something, I want to be the best at it.”
Rodriguez is in a great position where he’s incredibly athletically-gifted and still in the prime of his career, so a transition to MMA would likely go pretty well for him. It isn’t the only option available to him though, as he revealed before that he’d been successful in trying out for the WWE in the past too. Rodriguez actually has his eye on a number of different sports so it’s unclear where he’s actually going to be competing in the future. He’s even said that he’d be open to boxing matches with minor celebrities too, but a bare knuckle MMA fight is obviously a whole different kind of challenge.
Nicky Rodriguez explained that the offer to do bare knuckle MMA actually came from the biggest name in the niche sport, GameBred promotions:
“I actually had (Jorge) Masvidal offer me a pretty decent cheque to do bare knuckle MMA. Unfortunately though, it didn’t work out, but anything’s open in the future. It definitely would take like, I would have to dedicate at least six months to a year to striking before I even thought about hopping in the cage.”
The interview Nicky Rodriguez where he revealed that he was offered a bare knuckle MMA fight with GameBred promotions was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Jaxxon Podcast:
