UFC welterweight ‘New Mansa’ Joaquin Buckley was highly unimpressed with Bo Nickal’s UFC 309 over Paul Craig in which he tested his striking rather than utilizing his world-class wrestling.
Joaquin Buckley Calls Bo Nickal’s Striking Trash
The US-born Bo Nickal was a stand-out collegiate wrestler having won the top position three times over in NCAA Division 1 wrestling. He trialed for the US Olympic wrestling team but lost to gold medalist David Taylor. Nickal then switched his focus to MMA.
In his most recent fight, Bo Nickal did not rely on his wrestling instead he kept the fight on the feet and earned a unanimous decision win over Paul Craig at UFC 309. However, many people commented stating that the performance was underwhelming.
Streaking welterweight Joaquin Buckley, of the USA, recently shared his thoughts on Nickal’s striking performance before he faces Colby Covington in the UFC Fight Night main event on December 14. ‘New Mansa’ spoke with James Lynch and explained:
“Yeah, that sh** trash. Yeah, that Bo Nickal, man—he should have gone to what he knows best, and that was the wrestling. But I’ll say, you know, Paul Craig has some good jiu-jitsu off his back. I guess Bo just didn’t want to test that and instead wanted to see what his striking was like.
“But [Bo Nickal]definitely got exposed on his feet. He definitely doesn’t know what he’s doing when it comes to that. I feel like if he learned or cleaned up his striking a little bit more, he could have gotten Paul Craig out of there. He could have knocked out Paul Craig.
“But, you know, it is what it is. He still has room to grow, and I feel like there’s a lot of things he needs to mature on before he tries to fight some of the best guys in the world. That’s just my opinion.”