Henry Cejudo thinks UFC 285 showed that Bo Nickal may not be ready for top-ranked opposition just yet.
Although Nickal (4-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) scored another first-round submission by tapping out Jamie Pickett in this past Saturday’s main card opener at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Cejudo wasn’t too confident in what he saw.
Nickal had to work for his initial takedown before an apparent low blow which wasn’t caught by the referee assisted in him landing it. Once Nickal got Pickett to the mat, he secured an arm-triangle choke which took him a while to adjust and synch in. The standout wrestler has supreme confidence that he can take out top contenders now, but former Olympic gold medalist and two-division UFC champ Cejudo says rushing will cost him.
“There’s a huge hype train going around with Bo Nickal,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “I did see some – obviously, he did win, but I also saw a little difference in the two because he did struggle to get that takedown. MMA wrestling, it is different than NCAA Wrestling. They have to continue to keep building Bo Nickal. If they don’t build Bo Nickal, when they give him somebody tough, Bo Nickal is going to struggle because I saw what I had to see within those first two minutes.
“I was curious to see if he didn’t get the arm triangle, how was it that he was going to come back in that second round because there’s a lot of squeezing, there’s a lot of blood, that you’re constricting through you trying to submit somebody. But other than that, again, I had it first-round submission, it happened. But moving forward, Bo Nickal, I hope you’re listening: You’re gonna need about six fights like this before you start getting up to like the top 10.”
Cejudo pointed to his own personal experience, where he challenged flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson in just his fifth UFC fight. Cejudo was finished by TKO in Round 1, which was an eye-opening experience for him. H would get a rematch years later with more experience, though, and would defeat “Mighty Mouse” in a rematch.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 285.
