If you thought MMA’s hottest prospect had confident claims before his DWCS debut, you haven’t seen anything just yet.
Long before Bo Nickal stole the show at Dana White’s Contender Series, he made headlines for claims that seemed outlandish at the time. During a media tour at International Fight Week, Nickal claimed that no fighter in the UFC even has a fraction of the wrestling skillset he possesses. After an expected amount of pushback, Nickal admitted he was wrong before correcting himself by saying nobody on the roster can even boast 1% of his skillset.
Nickal has yet to introduce the MMA world to his wrestling, but he remains very confident that when the time comes, people are going to be in for a rude awakening when their favorite fighter is on their back with no answers.
Nickal isn’t shying away from his abilities or confidence, and he remains unapologetic to fighters and fans offended by his claims. He is actually even more confident than that IFW interview would indicate.
Could you throw a fighter out of the cage Tank Abbott style in a live fight?
“Yeah, probably. I don’t see how not. I think I could kind of do whatever I want to most of the guys in there. I think that’s pretty realistic. I don’t really see myself trying it. It doesn’t seem like the most practical thing to do, but if I really wanted to, I could.”
Could you successfully take down and hold down a middleweight for 4:55 per round?
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be difficult at all. More realistically, there’s no way they would even last for four minutes when I get them down. If I wanted to, I could hold them down indefinitely, I guess is the right word.”
Could you break a fighter’s ribs with your squeeze?
“For sure. That’s wrestling. At the end of the day, it’s a different feeling and I see people do it in practice rooms all the time, so I can’t imagine what a guy that’s never felt that is going to do. We train and build up our strength in our core and our ribs by getting squeezed all the time. Somebody that has never felt that… I think I’d snap them like a twig.”
Could you break the takedown record in a fight (21)?
“I think I could do that in one round if I wanted to. It’s just not super practical and they’re not going to get away from me. I remember watching the fight where Khabib took the guy down 21 times and he’s taking him down, popping up to his feet, taking him down, popping up to his feet, bringing him down so many times. With me there’s no chance that a guy’s even going to get up after I bring him down once.”
Could you fight twice in one night?
“Oh yeah. I would love that. That would be so fun. Obviously never going to happen but I’d love to be double booked. Triple book me even - three fights in one night would be ideal. I’m used to getting three or four matches in a day. Line ‘em up and I’ll just run through them.”
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Win an open weight folkstyle tournament against the entire UFC roster?
Yeah. That would be easy. There’s nobody, even the heavyweights. They’re not going to be able to handle what I have. My toughest competition in a wrestling sense is going to be my teammates when they start winning some fights and get into the UFC themselves. Those are going to be the only ones comparable to what I’m doing.
Could you weigh in one hour in advance of a fight and defeat a fighter weighing in 24 hours in advance?
I, for, sure could win that. I have a great team with me in The Treigning Lab with Sam Calavitta. I’ve been working with him a long time. We have a real professional approach to the weight cut to the rehydration and just everything we do. It’s very scientific and systematic. That wouldn’t be an issue at all. At the end of the day, these guys don’t even know how to cut weight anyways. They have no idea what they’re doing, so I don’t really think that would be that much of an advantage for them at all.”
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It’s clear that confidence is no issue, but if we were to see even one of these feats come to fruition, we may be looking at one of the most impressive fighters in the middleweight division.
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