Bo Nickal says he abandoned his wrestling only for Paul Craig at UFC 309.
Nickal received criticism for not resorting to his decorated wrestling background and instead choosing to stand with Craig in their middleweight bout earlier this month. He swept the scorecards to claim a lackluster unanimous decision win, but many pundits and fans weren’t impressed with his performance.
Nickal (7-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) was especially critiqued for having previously downplayed Khamzat Chimaev’s wrestling, but he’s still confident that he’d have the edge if they grappled.
“My goal has always been to be UFC champion, pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter in the world,” Nickal said on the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Henry Cejudo and Kamaru Usman. “And so when I call out guys like Khamzat, that’s because I think that he’s really good, and I want to fight the best guys.
“I think that this last fight, even though people didn’t love the performance, was a great step in the right direction. I dominated a veteran, a guy who has 26 fights, for three straight rounds with just using striking. I didn’t even use my biggest asset. I think people now are saying, ‘Oh, Bo, he can’t wrestle’ this or that. Bro, trust me, I can wrestle.”
Nickal assures everyone that he plans on using his wrestling against future opponents. He insists that he implemented the correct game plan against Craig (17-9-1 MMA, 9-9-1 UFC), who finished former UFC champion Jamahal Hill and top contender Magomed Ankalaev off of his back.
“I want to keep dominating,” Nickal said. “I look at my potential for matchups in the future, and with Paul Craig, it’s like his best position’s off his back. So, I didn’t think it was the best situation to put him in his best position, but there’s really no other guys like that.
“So, you can guarantee that every single guy I’m going to be taking them down. There’s a very low chance – I’m not going to say zero because crazy things happen – I could slip on a banana peel or something. Very low chance that they’re taking me down, and if they do I’m getting up guaranteed.”
