American Top Team Headman Mike Brown admits that Bo Nickal's push to the middleweight was top 15 premature.
UFC Middleweight Prospect Bo Nickal suffered the first setback of his MMA career at UFC des Moines last Saturday. After a largely dominant start of his UFC Middleweight Termoke, Nickal was confronted with the most difficult test of his career in Reinier de Ridder, who entered the event with exponentially more experience.
De Ridder, a former champion with two division, finished Nickal in round 2 with a brutal last series. He kneels Nickal firm of the liver, collapsed the unbeaten prospect and pulled the upperer.
After he had fallen into his UFC career for the first time, Nickal expressed gratitude in his first comments after the fight. But for his team, Nickal was pushed to the top 15 too quickly, only a handful of fighting in his fighting career.
Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC
The Bo Nickal team was worried about the fast push of the UFC of talented prospect
After Two Dana White's Contender Series Fights, the UFC took a chance for Nickal and signed him despite his limited experience in MMA at the schedule. The former NCAA Division I National Champion Wrestler only fought once before his two DWCs invitations, a fast knockout in IKON FC.
Although afterwards is 20/20, the Nickal team regrets how the early UFC career of their talented prospect was treated.
In a recent Instagram post, the American top team head coach Mike Brown admitted that Nickal may have been pushed too high, too quickly in his UFC career.
“Was a difficult weekend, but maybe one that was needed,” said Brown about Nickal's performance.
“Things were quickly moved for Bo Nickal and so far he could make things happen and six finishes and seven victories with the limited experience he has. Bo has all the attributes you want if you are a goal to become a world champion in mixed martial arts. He has athletics, a strong self -asset mindset, and he has started and he has started and he has started with a very differentian -and he has started and he and he is a very differential -and he -and -alarms – to develop.
“But the only thing that Bo does not have is live Fighting Cage Time and there is no replacement for this,” Brown continued. “MMA fighter experience is crucial and the actual time in the cage is extremely important. As a team we were worried about moving so quickly and we realize the dangers of fighting such a high level so early, but Bo is a unique athlete and the UFC has it on a fast road.”
Before he fell to De Ridder, Nickal went the distance in his MMA career for the first time and beat Paul Craig by a unanimous decision on UFC 309. Nickal was heavily criticized for the slow show while Booes overloaded him over Madison Square Garden.
In anticipation of UFC des Moines, Nickal went through a dramatic weight area, which cut around 40 pounds at the start of the Vechtweek. This, combined with the lack of experience of Nickal, probably contributed to his TKO loss against De Ridder.
Dana White told Bo Nickal to reduce UFC after the defeat of the first career
A former lightweight star went one step further after viewing the performance of Nickal at UFC des Moines. Josh Thomson begged UFC CEO Dana White to cut Nickal, so that the Att Blue-Chip can be dealt with with lesser competition that corresponds to his level of experience.
During his fast climb in the UFC, Nickal called the will of Khamzat Chimaev, Israel Adesanya and Dricus du Plessis for future fights. But after UFC des Moines it is clear that Nickal has a way to go before he makes the case to compete against the top middle weights.
While Nickal is suffering from the jaws of the defeat for the first time, he will want to bounce back in his next fight later this year. More eyes are likely to pay attention to the MMA return of Nickal and how he deals with a rare case of adversity.