Bo Nickal felt the heat from the New York crowd all week heading into UFC 322, and despite giving the fans at Madison Square Garden something to cheer about, Nickal used it as a chance to give it back.
Nickal put on the best performance of his UFC career in the featured prelim of Saturday’s pay-per-view card, and capped it off with a devastating third-round head kick knockout of Rodolfo Vieira — then flipped the double middle fingers to the capacity crowd. In his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, the Penn State wrestling standout also took a few shots at the fans.
“Yeah, [I was] feeling like I had something to prove,” Nickal told MMA Fighting during his post-fight media scrum. “I have a chip on my shoulder. I wish that I was a little bit better person, but I’m not. I’m very competitive and I’m just a guy.
“So I’m out here trying to do my best but you get a little emotional out there when you’re fighting in your underwear in front of millions of people.”
Nickal bounced back in a big way from his first career MMA loss, where he was dominated and finished by Reinier de Ridder at May’s UFC Des Moines card. It seemed to light a fire under Nickal to work even harder to get back in the win column, and while he appeared quite humble all week, the competitive fire continued to grew.
The 29-year-old was asked why he chose to flip off the fans and clap back.
“I felt like I was just standing up for myself a little bit,” Nickal explained. “They’re going to jaw at me and and give me crap, then give it back a little bit. I don’t look at it as anything other than just standing up for myself a little bit. It’s not personal at all. It’s just letting them know how I feel.”
