This past Saturday in the co-main event of UFC Des Moines, we saw a major matchup in the middleweight division where arguably the top prospect in the division faced his toughest challenge to date. Bo Nickal (7-1) was getting a huge step up in taking on former two-division ONE champion Reinier De Ridder (20-2).
There has been so much hype around Nickal ever since he made the transition to MMA. The decorated wrestler was a three-time NCAA Division One national champion and through his first six fights, he looked incredible. Nickal was 6-0 with six finishes entering his November bout against Paul Craig. While Nickal won the fight, that was the first time that he didn’t blow everyone away with his performance.
This fight against RDR was really going to test where he was at and it turns out, Nickal quite isn’t at that level yet. This fight was all about Reinier De Ridder and Nickal struggled to gain the advantage everywhere. Even when Nickal landed a takedown, it was De Ridder who ended up getting the better of the positions.
On the feet, it was all about De Ridder. De Ridder did tremendous work with his knees and shots to the body and it was hurting Nickal badly. RDR unleashed a ton of shots in the second round and did work that had Nickal visibly hurt against the fence. On the break De Ridder pushed forward and landed a flush left knee that sent Nickal crashing to the ground and Nickal’s undefeated streak ended right there at UFC Des Moines.
What’s next after UFC Des Moines?
While the majority of the attention should be on the brilliance of Reinier De Ridder, the online chatter focused a lot on Bo Nickal after this fight. Nickal has made it clear that he believes he’s one of the best in the world and while he has a lot of fans, there’s a number of people who aren’t fans of his due to his perceived arrogance.
All fighters have to be confident, but Nickal has made some very strong claims about how good he believes he already is. Let me be clear, Bo Nickal is a tremendous talent and I think he will be a UFC title contender one day, but Saturday night proved that there are levels to this and he’s just not on that level as of now.
He’s eight fights into his professional career and he has a lot of work to do. Nickal posted on social media that he began fight week nearly 40 pounds over the middleweight limit. That’s a massive cut for fight week and I’m sure that also hindered his ability to take the shots to the body that came his way from RDR.
Nickal talked about bulking up, but I think he’d be better suited trimming down. Even after bulking up, De Ridder looked like the bigger and stronger man inside the octagon on Saturday night. If Nickal is going to be a middleweight, he needs to focus more on his athleticism rather than his size and strength.
In terms of what’s next, I think the UFC should give him someone like Michel Pereira. Pereira had an awful showing at UFC Kansas City and has now lost two in a row to drop out of the rankings. Pereira is another test for Nickal, but it’s a test that Nickal can easily pass with the right game plan. I’m not writing Nickal off after Saturday night, but he has a lot of work to do.