With his fourth win inside the Octagon, Bo Nickal continued to climb up the middleweight ladder on Saturday night at UFC 309 whilst remaining undefeated. Despite this, his latest outing was the first to raise some concerns regarding his current level.
The 28-year old rising star went the distance with Scotland’s Paul Craig in the first decision win of his career. Though he won all three rounds against his toughest opponent to date, it was the manner of the performance that many took issue with as the two grappling specialists engaged in a lacklustre striking bout for the entire duration.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing that Nickal showed that he could win the fight without using his wrestling but with Craig not being known for his striking skills either, it wasn’t a particularly impressive display. Chael Sonnen believes that this performance will remove the fear factor and mystique surrounding Nickal during his time in the promotion.
We see it happen time and time again where an exciting prospect comes up against their toughest test and is shown to not be an unbeatable phenom just quite yet. Though Sonnen admitted that Nickal needs time before making the next step up, he believes that the UFC will no longer have any problems matching him after he looked far more beatable than we’ve seen in the past.
“Those days are done, for now, they’re put on hold. The conversation that nobody has called out Bo Nickal, that will change. Come Monday, people will be calling for him. The idea that Bo is the boogeyman in the closet that Dana and Hunter just cannot find opponents for because there is so much respect put on Bo’s name mixed with fear… that is gone. They will find opponents for Bo very quickly now and it doesn’t need to be that way.”