Bo Nickal may be making his debut in the UFC sooner than expected.
Coming off an incredible win, Bo Nickal landed a devastating knockout in under a minute in his first fight in mixed martial arts. Nickal made his first walk to the octagon under Jorge Masvidal’s ikon Fighting Championship after a glittering career as a wrestler.
Bo Nickal is in talks with multiple promotions
In an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Nickal revealed that he is currently in talks with multiple promotions following his first win in the sport. His ambitions to
“We’re definitely in talks with the big boys. Every promotion that you know is on the map all the big promotions we’re having discussions with them. That’s something that’s on my mind. For me, the main thing is development”
“Again, I’m a 1-0 pro, I don’t have 10-15 fights like that level of experience. I want to get experience, I want to get fights and continue to build and grow and get better.”
The former freestyle wrestling champion believes his road to the UFC is not far.
“It’s weird because I say that but I also think I can do that really quickly. It’s not something where I need so many fights before I’m in a big organization.”
Nickal likens his journey to Jon Jones
When probed by Ariel Helwani on who he would compare his journey to, Nickal mentioned arguably the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, Jon Jones.
“I’m going for finishes every single fight so I think a guy, especially early in his career had a lot of finishes was Jon Jones. He had diversity too. Obviously, my wrestling accolades were a lot better than his but he stopped wrestling really young”
“I think he could’ve been that type of athlete in wrestling had he stuck with it too so I see myself emulating a lot of his attacks, his style, we’re both long guys, explosive, powerful. He was out there just finishing dudes whether that was with strikes, elbows, kicks, knees, submissions”
“That’s kinda how I see myself too because to be that number one pound-for-pound that I want to be I can’t go out there and take a dude down and hold him down for five minutes like I gotta smash every single guy I fight.”
Nickal clarifies his stance on wrestling Khabib
During the build-up for his fight last weekend, Nickal said that he would defeat the legendary Khabib Nurmagomedov in a wrestling match. Nickal clarified his stance on the potential matchup reasoning that a comparison between a specialist and a general practitioner would always favor the expert.
“They don’t understand what I’m saying and it’s just I think that more than anything it’s not really an opinion. It’s a fact. What I compared it to was, the guy asked me if I would beat Khabib in a wrestling match. I’m like, ‘dude, I’ve wrestled my whole life'”
“That’s like asking me if I’m going to stop a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty kick. I’m not going to stop it. He’s going to hit that a 100 out of a 100 times, maybe one time he hits the crossbar.”
Nickal only has one professional fight in MMA but has been touted to be a future champion by many greats of the sport including Jorge Masvidal, who he helped train for numerous fights in the UFC.
