Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) super Middleweight prospect Bo Nickal returns to action to headline the UFC 322 “Prelims” against Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) legend Rodolfo Vieira inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Nickal says his TKO loss to Reinier de Ridder earlier this year was a humbling wake-up call that forced a mental reset. That night in Des Moines exposed a flaw: Nickal defaulted to a wrestling mindset of control and scoring instead of actively trying to damage and finish his opponent.
However, because of that devastating loss (watch highlights), the three-time NCAA Division I national wrestling champion is now ready to use grappling to hurt his opponents.
“That fight was a good lesson because I’d never been hit hard in a fight before, never had damage done to me, so it really shifted my mindset,” Nickal told Jorge Masvidal on the Death Row MMA podcast. “In my mind, I felt like I was controlling him. I had his back against the cage, I felt like I could take him down at any point — but I made a mistake. I’m used to wrestling, where the whole point is to control and score points. It’s not like that in a fight. The point is to do damage and hurt the guy — that fight made me realize I have to mess this dude up.”
Nickal says the experience forced him to stop treating mixed martial arts (MMA) like collegiate wrestling and start treating it like a fight where damage rules over control.
“I can’t be just holding them against the cage or holding them down. I know I can do that,” Nickal added. “I felt like I didn’t have a good idea of what I wanted to do, but since that fight, I have a really strong idea of what my strategy and game plan is to win the fight. And by winning the fight, I mean do as much damage as possible — control it that way rather than a wrestling match.”
Nickal’s elite wrestling has been the talk of his career, yet he hasn’t often used it to inflict significant damage inside the Octagon. Facing a high-level BJJ specialist like Vieira at Madison Square Garden is a true test: will Nickal fold back into old habits (like the last time he faced a high-level BJJ grappler), or will he finally put the pieces together and finish fights the way he says he will?
Time will tell — but Nickal insists he’s already changed his approach.
To see who else is fighting at UFC 322 this weekend in New York click here.
