Even after switching to MMA, Bo Nickal refuses to let go of his wrestling roots.
Nickal is a three-time NCAA Division I national champion from Penn State University. Nickal made his pro MMA debut in 2022 and entered the UFC after just three appearances, including two on Dana White’s Contender Series.
Despite being primarily a wrestler, Nikkal has shown improvement in his striking, with two wins by knockout. But unlike many other wrestlers who only focus on striking after finding success on the feet, Nickal knows that wrestling is his bread and butter. In order to practice pure wrestling regularly, Nickal contacted American Top Team owner Dan Lambert. They built a gym just 10 minutes from Penn State so Nikal could train in mixed martial arts in the mornings and practice wrestling with the college team in the afternoons.
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“I wrestled at Penn State and I love it,” Nickal recently told Demetrius Johnson. “And you see this kind of trend with wrestlers, they all transition to MMA and they’re like, ‘Okay, I knocked the guy out and now I’m a hell of a striker.'” And I was like, “No, I I didn’t do that.” I thought. So he contacted Dan Lambert of American Top Team and they agreed to build a gym about 10 minutes from Penn State’s campus. So I started training. There, they trained three full-time coaches in Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, and Boxing. And basically what I do is I train for MMA every morning and wrestle against the Penn State team in the afternoon. So I get to wrestle with the best guys in the world almost every day. ”
Nickal’s wrestling skills will no doubt be put to the test when he takes on veteran grappler Paul Craig (17-8) at UFC 309 on November 16th at Madison Square Garden in New York. The undefeated Penn State graduate has won all six of his professional matches to date, and has only made it past Round 1 once. Meanwhile, “The Bear Jew” won his middleweight debut last year over Andre Muniz, but has since suffered back-to-back stoppage losses to Brendan Allen and Caio Boralho.
