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Bo Nickal recently received counsel from Sean O'Malley regarding the direction of the rookie wrestler's UFC career.
Three times as a professional, twice in Dana White's Contender Series, Nickal (3-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has contested. He quickly submitted Donovan Beard in September to win a UFC contract, and on December 10 he will make his octagon debut against Jamie Pickett at UFC 282.
Nickal stated during "The MMA Hour" with Ariel Helwani that he would retire if the UFC put him on the preliminary card. Later, the prestigious collegiate wrestler shared on Twitter that he will compete on the preliminary card, but only if the UFC puts together a lineup including ten fighters who will pull in more spectators.
O'Malley (15-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) has competed on a pay-per-view main card in each of his fights since he headlined the UFC 248 preliminary event in March 2020. O'Malley encourages Nickal to believe in the process as he did, even if he makes it onto the UFC 282 preliminary card.
Speaking on his podcast, The BrOMalley Show, Sean O'Malley discussed Bo Nickal's recent tweet.
“He’s potentially a superstar,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “They’re going to build him up. He’s fighting a guy who’s 13-8, 2-4 in the UFC, coming off a two-fight losing streak. He’s going to be built up good. They’re going to put him where he needs to be. The UFC is going to put you where you need to be. They’ve done it with me.’’
“They obviously knew I was going to be a superstar, and I am – look at me now. He’s got a lot of confidence – young, stud. I’d say just trust the ride, trust the UFC. But that’s not even that bad of a statement. He probably won’t fight on some sh*t card. They’re going to put him in a spot to where a lot of people are going to see him.”
Nickal has yet to make his UFC debut, so his remarks were somewhat shocking. Despite his genuine potential, it wouldn't be shocking to see him win the preliminary card. If the card is not stacked, that wouldn't be the worst scenario for Nickal. He did demand to face the Swede beast, Khamzat Chimaev, on his UFC debut. Chimaev is rumored to move up to the middleweight division after failing to make the weight cut for the fight against Nate Diaz. The fight kind of made sense, but UFC President Dana White ruled out the ongoing speculation regarding the potential match-up.
“Let’s not get crazy here,” White said at the “Contender Series” press conference. “You don’t test him against ranked talent. You bring him in just like you would bring in any prospect. You build him up, give him fights. The problem is, there’s no easy fights here. This isn’t like the boxing model. But he walked into a show where there’s no easy fights. Everybody here are killers. So if you perform the way that you performed here twice – there’s some guys that come in here and it’s a rough go. There’s wars, and they’ll squeak out a win at the end. This guy came out and dominated twice.”