Bo Nickal tasted defeat during his wrestling career, but he never faced the same level of criticism as he did after suffering his first loss in MMA when he was finished with a body shot knockout by Reinier
de Ridder back in May.
Of course part of that comes from competing on a much bigger stage like the UFC but it was also due to the tremendous amount of hype heaped on Nickal’s shoulders after he made the transition to fighting. He’s obviously heard words like “overrated” get tossed around plenty since his loss and there are even those saying that Nickal hasn’t been fully focused on fighting due to all of his other endeavors outside the sport.
In response, Nickal didn’t lash out or insult his biggest critics but instead took what he could from the comments and reflected on getting better before his next appearance at UFC 322 on Saturday.
“I think any time there’s criticism, you can take it personally and let it be a hit to your ego or you can look at it and analyze it and try to be unbiased,” Nickal said during UFC 322 media day. “I feel like a lot of the stuff, there’s some truth to it. You can maybe look at it that way or perceive it that way and maybe there is a little truth there. But I feel like it’s really lacking the whole picture.
“At the end of the day, I’m going to live my life the way I want to live my life. So nobody’s going to tell me what to do or how to do it. I’m going to make those decisions and do what I think is best for me personally. But that being said, I think that I don’t really approach the critics and observation of what they’re saying with malice or I feel like these people are attacking me, it’s me against them. It’s more just like try to observe it in an unbiased way and maybe there is some truth to that.”
As much as it seemed like Nickal just got bombarded with negative comments after losing his first fight, he was happy to reveal that wasn’t the case.
While he’s admittedly not obsessed with checking his social media, the 29-year-old wrestler from Penn State was stunned at how many people reached out to him with words of encouragement rather than rooting for his continued downfall.
“I actually got way more love and support after my last loss than I did even my wins previous,” Nickal said. “It was something I was surprised with. I figured everybody would kind of jump ship and let me be. The amount of support and love that I had, I had probably 50 percent more text messages and people saying things like ‘keep your head up’ and ‘you’ll be back’ and stuff like that.
“There’s more people texting me than the people that texted me after I won fights. That was something I was really grateful for and really appreciative of.”
Losing is always difficult but one loss won’t define Nickal’s entire career, which is why he didn’t necessarily try to reinvent the wheel before his return against Rodolfo Vieira at UFC 322.
That doesn’t mean he didn’t address some shortcomings like staying focused on his own preparation rather than paying constant attention to his opponents. More than anything, Nickal just wanted to get his mind right before returning to the octagon to ensure he was truly ready for his next fight.
“I think that for me it felt like a lot of changes because I really just changed a lot of stuff mentally and had a lot of focus and intensity and motivation with my training,” Nickal explained.
“I think the loss has been something that’s been really good for me. Something that I’m grateful for. The hard part is just now it’s felt like a long time. I’ve been waiting and just working and grinding and excited to get back in there this weekend.”
Putting the past behind him, Nickal promises he wouldn’t change anything about his journey into combat sports thus far … well, maybe just one thing.
“I made a pretty arrogant comment [in an interview] that of course I would be on the main card [for UFC 322],” Nickal said. “A lot of people have given me a lot of flack for that. Your guy’s wishes were fulfilled. I’ll be headlining the prelims. Congratulations everybody.”
