Who is Bo Nickal's wife Maddie Holmberg? A look into the rising UFC star's married life
Bo Nickal has become a highly touted fighter on the UFC roster in a very short time. The former three-time NCAA Division 1 champion has been a great addition to the middleweight division and there is a lot of anticipation about his prospects in the promotion.
Nickal is still relatively new in the sport and has only five fights on his professional MAM record. While he has a monumental task to prove his mettle against the top crop of the sport, he has a solid support system and a loving partner he can lean on when the going gets tough.
Who is Bo Nickal's wife Maddie Holmberg?
Bo Nickal's wife Maddie Holmberg is also from an athletic background. Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Holmberg was an elite track and field athlete at Penn State University where she met Nickal.
Daughter of former Penn State and NFL linebacker Rob Holmberg, Maddie was a three-time first-team All-American in track and field and a Big Ten champion in both the heptathlon and pentathlon during her time at Penn State. Meanwhile, Nickal won three NCAA Division 1 championships in wrestling along with the prestigious Hodge trophy.
Nickal doesn't usually talk about his personal life on public platforms. However, he expressed his love for his wife in the UFC 290 octagon interview after defeating Val Woodburn. Nickal also announced her pregnancy during the interview. The 28-year-old said:
"Madeline Nickal I love you so much. I'm a husband, I'm also going to be a father soon, my wide is pregnant. And it's really cool to knock people out in the octagon, I just did to, it's really cool. But it's even cooler to be a good husband and a good dad. And that's what's most important to me in life."
Catch Nickal's comments below:
It was just another night at the office for Bo Nickal 🤷♂️
#UFC290 https://t.co/foOqhEiq5t
The couple welcomed their baby, a son named Ace, in December 2023. Nickal announced the news on his social media accounts. Baby Ace also attended his first combat sports event in February when Bo and Maddie Nickal brought him to watch a wrestling event.
Maddie Holmberg initially wanted Bo Nickal to quit MMA
Maddie Holmberg and Bo Nickal were both majoring in kinesiology when they met in class in 2016. While they would hang around the same group of people, the spark came only when they were put in a group project together.
Nickal fell for Maddie, proposed on New Year's Day 2020, and got married by the end of that year. While Holmberg had a fair idea of Nickal's dominance in college wrestling, she could not fathom MMA as a sport. The Penn State track and field star said in a previous interview with Nittany Sports Now:
"This is insane [after watching a MMA fight on TV]. I cannot believe that he wants to do this. I hope that if we stay together that he changes his mind.”
However, after watching her husband compete in his first two amateur bouts, Maddie Holmberg gradually learned to appreciate the nuances of the sport. She added:
“It’s not a malicious thing. It’s really just a sport, and it’s about challenging yourself. Bo’s very smart, and he sees it really as just a puzzle.”
Nickal has been dominant in his MMA career so far. He will return to action against Cody Brundage on the main card of the milestone UFC 300 pay-per-view event on April 13.