Dana White on Bo Nickal UFC Debut: ‘Wait Til That Kid is in the Sport 2 or 3 Years’

Bo Nickal entered UFC 285 as one of the most hyped prospects in recent memory.

The three-time NCAA national champion wrestler from Penn State University largely delivered on that hype, as he submitted Jamie Pickett with an arm-triangle choke 2:54 into Round 1 of their featured middleweight bout. That performance came on the heels of back-to-back first-round finishes on Dana White’s Contender Series, which seems to forecast a bright future for the 27-year-old.

“I had a lot of questions about him and when you saw his opponent, the guy is huge, he’s got like 25 fights, tons of experience. I thought, listen, he’s a human being. I don’t care what level of wrestling he is. This isn’t wrestling,” UFC president Dana White said at Saturday’s post-fight press confernce. “This is a completely different game here. There’s adrenaline dumps, the nervous energy, all the things of performing in the UFC for the first time, and he blew that all out of the water. He went in there and looked incredible.

“[UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard] came over to me after and said, ‘You know, he wasn’t even applying that choke the right way, and he still got that choke.’ Wait till that kid is in the sport two or three years.”

Nickal’s debut wasn’t without controversy. Pickett’s team is planning to appeal the defeat due to an apparent groin strike that may have aided the decorated wrestler in landing his first takedown of the fight. Nickal denied committing a foul while speaking to media in a post-fight session.

“I hit him in the leg, in the thigh,” Nickal said. “I had him in a bad position along the wall. He wanted to get off the wall and he wanted the ref to stop it. If I were to have actually hit him low, I would feel bad because I don’t want to win that way. I’m not a cheater. I’m not somebody who tries to take short cuts. If I did hit him low, I would’ve just relaxed probably or let the ref stop it. But I didn’t hit him low at all, so it’s a weird move, bro.”

Otherwise, NIckal was happy to get the victory but feels he has plenty of room for improvement going forward.

“I could’ve done a lot of things better,” Nickal said. “I was just talking with my coach and I have to stop throwing high kicks right away because two out of my four fights, I’ve fallen on my butt like a dummy. Yeah, that was fun. A little split there. I think overall was as expected – not exceptional. It was as expected. I’m grateful to go out there and not get hit and get the win.”