Bo Nickal is a 4-time All-American through high school and college who made the switch to MMA back in 2022 and immediately saw some big differences, many of which he didn’t like.
From Olympic team trials to US National tournaments, Nickal has spent a lifetime with wrestlers, and now after being around so many mixed martial artists from his time in the UFC, he thinks there is one major difference, a prevalent lack of discipline.
The unbeaten UFC fighter was highly critical of MMA fighters during a conversation with Demetrious Johnson and practically accused mixed martial artists of being hesitant to make the necessary sacrifices, which is something of a culture in the world of amateur wrestling.
“I don’t think a lot of people are willing to be disciplined and make the sacrifices that you just see everybody doing in wrestling right?….In wrestling that’s just what you do.”
Nickal credited this discipline to the various clubs, colleges, and teams that function on rigorous training, on and off the matt. Wrestling fosters virtues such as discipline as there is so much competition allowing the margin for error to be almost negligible.
Case in point, take Khabib Nurmagomedov’s school of wrestling. There is no respite, and they never stop learning. Even someone of the level of welterweight champion Belal Muhammad has spoken about just how ruthless the training is.
Former UFC champ, Daniel Cormier, who had once sent kids from his wrestling school to Dagestan to train with Khabib has detailed their experience. The children claim that while they practice wrestling in DC’s school, they trained in Dagestan.
And it’s not on the matt. From waking up early in the morning to having buzz cuts to eating the right things all the time, it’s like how Jedis train!
According to Nickal, it is the reason why a lot of UFC fighters find success initially and then fall off while wrestlers keep carrying on with their legacies. Nickal believes that success gets to MMA fighters’ heads and they start slacking off in training and other aspects of life which then makes them lose focus even in their fights.
And since he’s been a part of both worlds, Nickal hopes to navigate it with tact and has a proper blueprint for what he wants to do next and wants to stick to it.
Nickal reveals the plans for UFC career
If there is indeed a plan, why isn’t Bo Nickal fighting any ranked opponents yet? Turns out, both the UFC and the young wrestler are going the Sean O’Malley path.
O’Malley, for the longest time, had no intention of jumping the gun with respect to his MMA career. He took his sweet time, and took on fights that would allow him the experience to compete at an elite level. His opponents got tougher with time and by the time he got to the title, ‘Suga’ was almost a certified superstar who was expected to win.
Nickal wants to take the same road, the one less traveled by.
“I feel like I can compete with and beat the best guys in the world right now, but I don’t want it to be competitive when it happens. So, when I go out there and I’m competing for the belt, I want it to look like a master class where this guy is not even on my level.”
And it makes sense for Bo Nickal to gain more experience in the octagon since he has fewer fights to his name. While he is getting better with each fight, there’s still so much to his game that could use improvement. So good for him to take the time and work on it till he can get to a level where he’s competing with the likes of Khamzat Chimaev.
