Bo Nickal talks about facing 'juiced-up' Iranian wrestler who defeated him and his Olympic gold medalist friend
UFC middleweight Bo Nickal has an accomplished background in freestyle wrestling. He is a national champion and won various collegiate level accolades.
However, Nickal recalled one match where he was soundly beaten by an Iranian wrestler allegedly on illegal substances. In a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Nickal described his experience fighting him in Rome.
“So I wrestled this dude, I wrestled the tournament in Rome, a few years ago... I was weighing like 210 [pounds] the weight class is 213. And I was like, I’ll be fine. And I rolled up to this second round match and I was wrestling this Iranian dude and my coaches weren’t there with me, so I had some different coaches and they didn’t really warn me… This dude comes out, he’s like two inches taller than me. Freaking jacked as hell and does a ford roll and like squat jump and his feet are like over my head. And I’m like what the hell is going on here."
Nickal said he was thoroughly beaten by the Iranian, who happened to be a former silver medalist at the international level. The opponent then proceeded to also beat Kyle Snyder, an American Olympic gold medalist.
"I’m wrestling some dude I don’t even know and he killed me. It’s the only time I’ve ever wrestled a match where I really got whipped. Like he single leg took me down, and he came down from probably like 235. This guy was world silver medalist, bronze medalist, like five years ago. But the last five years he got banned, he got popped. And so he hadn’t competed in the last five years, he just been freaking training and juiced. And then the next round, he beat my teammate Kyle Snyder, who’s an Olympic gold medalist the exact same way. Like smoked us both.”
Check out Bo Nickal's comments below (2:00):
Bo Nickal discusses his excitement for UFC 300 fight
Bo Nickal has enjoyed a solid start to his MMA career, with five wins from as many fights. Two of those wins have come inside the UFC octagon and for his next fight, Nickal will be on the most-awaited and historic UFC 300 card.
He confirmed the news to Joe Rogan on the JRE show:
“So no opponent yet but I’m gonna fight UFC 300. [Ooh that’s a big one] I know. [April, right?] Yeah, April. [Do you think – is that Vegas?] Yes. [Nice] Yeah, I’m fired up. That’s gonna be fun.”
Check out Bo Nickal's comments below:
His opponent was also announced soon after as Cody Brundage, an eight-fight UFC veteran. Brundage is on the back of two strong wins and has fought four times this year compared to Nickal's two fights. Both fighters will look to start the year strong with a win on a blockbuster card.