New York, NY – Middleweight Bo Nickal stormed back into the win column in a big way at UFC 322.
A head kick knockout of Rodolfo Vieira gave Nickal a highlight moment and later a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus. But what may be most remembered is when Nickal climbed the octagon and knocked out fans at Madison Square Garden in New York.
What exactly happened there? Nickal (8-1) explained that while speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press after the fight. “I was just taken back to a year ago, MSG, and got some boos from the crowd. So I had to let them know how I really felt.”
Nickal has received a lot of criticism in the past year. First up was a highly criticized performance, although still a win, over Paul Craig at MSG a year ago. Reinier de Ridder then completed the finishing work last May.
What it came down to for Nickal, it seems, was “feeling like I had something to prove. I have a chip on my shoulder. I wish I was a little better person, but I’m not, I’m very competitive. I’m just a man. I’m trying to do my best here, but you get a little emotional when you’re fighting in your underwear in front of millions of people.”
And so after hearing fans ‘hunting’ him and calling him ‘crap’ for the past year, “I don’t look at it as anything other than standing up for myself a little bit. It’s not personal at all, I’m just letting them know how I feel.”
The head kick that Vieira finished, Bo Nickal later revealed, is something he works on consistently in the gym.
“Every day. That’s a Mike Brown signature, just for Mike Brown. Me and him have been working on that probably since I started fighting,” he revealed. “And it came out in battle, so grateful that it worked out.”
The fight was also a turning point in Nickal’s mentality, showing his determination to do damage.
“I feel like the last fight was really big for me because I changed my mindset from going in and controlling, going in and doing damage. Obviously you have to control first, but then do damage from there. It kind of sucks, to be honest it’s my least favorite part of fighting. I love the strategy, the discipline and the dedication, everything that goes into being a world class fighter. Hurting people isn’t at the top of my list as far as fun things for me, but it’s part of the sport. It is what we signed up for. It is what it is.”
With all the talk earlier about standing up for himself against critical fans, you’d expect Nickal to be done fighting in New York, at MSG. Not so.
“Ride off into the sunset, right? No, I’d like to fight at MSG every year,” replied Nickal, who between wrestling and fighting has now competed at the venue three times. “It’s a great arena, the people here are crazy. New York is different. It takes a different type of person to compete here.”
Watch the full UFC 322 post-fight press conference with Bo Nickal above.
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