Bo Nickal’s first MMA loss may have been a blessing a disguise. The decorated wrestler and blue-chip UFC prospect rebounded in thunderous fashion Saturday night at UFC 322, knocking out Rodolfo Vieira with a third-round head kick before flipping off the crowd inside New York’s Madison Square Garden.
A three-time NCAA Division I national champion and 2019 Dan Hodge Trophy winner, Nickal (8-1) entered the UFC in 2023 with a groundswell of hype as one of the sport’s most talented prospects, but saw his undefeated run screech to a halt against Reinier de Ridder in May.
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One left high kick was all it took Saturday night for Nickal to regain his lost momentum.
“That’s the game,” Nickal said post-fight. “I’ve lost a lot since i was a young kid and they always hit me hard, but guess what? I always bounce back and I keep coming, because I live for this, I love it. This is the most fun job in the world.”
“And we’re on ESPN so I can’t curse, but frick you motherfrickers for booing me and then cheering me,” he added. “Figure it out — either love me or hate me. Pick one.”
Nickal’s comments toward the New York crowd came after a smattering a boos rained down on he and Vieira during the later stages of their middleweight bout, despite the fact that both competitors were having a fairly spirited affair up to that point. Nickal bloodied up Vieira on the feet in the opening two rounds — outstriking the Brazilian 94-31 — and fended off all six of Vieira’s takedown attempts.
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Nickal promptly flipped off those same fans after his brutal fight-winning sequence, as pointed out by UFC commentator Joe Rogan on the broadcast.
Speaking to Uncrowned in May following his loss to de Ridder, Nickal called the experience “eye-opening” and admitted, “I think that more than being overconfident, it was being naive. Being in certain situations and not realizing that I’m in danger. It just comes with experience.”
“I think that now, having looked back and gone through that, I wasn’t as prepared as I thought,” he added in that same interview. “And there were a lot of things that I could have done better prior to, and a lot of things I could have focused on and done differently. That’s great. That’s something that I can look at, and I can take from that experience and change moving forward. So I think feeling that I was prepared as I could have been, and then realizing I really wasn’t, is a good thing for me.”
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Considering Saturday night’s highlight-reel performance, Nickal may have been onto something.