Bo Nickal, UFC’s latest young prodigy. A fighter that has only had three professional fights and was relatively unknown before appearing at DWCS for the first time earlier this August. Then almost a month later Nickal again impressed UFC President Dana White with another dominating performance that eventually earned him a UFC contract. His debut is set against Jamie Pickett at the upcoming UFC 282 pay-per-view event on December 10, 2022, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Nickal has just been in the UFC for a week and is not shying away from demanding how he wants to get treated. In a recent interview with Ariel, Helwani, Nickal said “Do I look like, am I a prelim guy? I’m not a prelim guy. If I have to fight on the prelims, I’ll just retire, I’m done,” Nickal said on The MMA Hour. “I don’t know if it’s in the contract, but they’ll (the UFC) do the right thing, they’ll do the smart thing and if I’m not, like I said, if I’m on the prelims, I’ll retire. I’m out… I’ve seen them do it before, put a bigger fight on the prelim, but I just, I don’t know. I’m a main card guy, it just doesn’t make sense. It’s Dana White’s Contender Series again, but I’m main eventing Dana White’s Contender Series at 2-0. Every fight I’m in is the main event. So, they’re putting me on the main card.”
Although it’s still not confirmed whether Bo Nickal is going to make his UFC debut in the main card or the prelims at UFC 282 but seeing the fan’s interest and hype behind him, it seems obvious that UFC will put him in the main card to boost up their PPV buys.
Next Fight for Bo Nickal
No time wasted: Bo Nickal’s (@NoBickal) UFC debut is set vs. Jamie Pickett at #UFC282.
Full details: https://t.co/FYlC340Md1 pic.twitter.com/ZcYuDgyrR9
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) September 29, 2022
Bo Nickal is all set to make his UFC debut against Jamie Pickett at UFC 282 this November. Fighting a 34-year-old opponent in Jamie Pickett who has a 13-8 professional record and is on a two-fight losing streak, doesn’t seem to be a very difficult task for Bo Nickal. Especially considering his last two fights in the Contender series where he barely took a minute to finish the fights.
The moment since Nickal joined the UFC, one fighter he has been constantly calling out is Khamzat Chimaev. Dana White though has denied any chances of that fight happening in the near future, but if Khamzat stays true to his word by consistently fighting at middleweight and Nickal continues his dominance in his next few fights, we might see that fight taking place sooner than we all expect.