Getting hit by reality
For a while, Bo Nickal looked untouchable. One of the most hyped prospects to hit the UFC in years, he rolled through his early opponents with ease. Then came Reinier de Ridder. And everything stopped.
Nickal lost. Clean. No controversy, no excuses. And now, weeks later, he’s opened up about what happened — and what that moment taught him.
“I thought I was ready. I wasn’t.”
Speaking honestly, Nickal said the loss wasn’t about cockiness. “It was more about being naïve,” he admitted. “There’s a difference. I wasn’t walking around thinking I was unbeatable — I just didn’t know what I didn’t know.”
Coming from a high-level wrestling background, Nickal had the mindset of a competitor. But in MMA, that wasn’t enough. “You can’t just be confident in your toughness,” he said. “I needed to understand how to manage the fight. The pace. The mistakes. All of it.”
Next step: adjust or get left behind
Nickal says he’s taking the loss seriously. Not just as a technical lesson, but as a reality check. “It opened my eyes,” he said. “You think you’re developing fast — and then someone shows you how much you still don’t see coming.”
He’s not walking away. Not even close. But the tone has shifted. Less hype, more work. And if he’s serious about sticking around in the UFC, that might be exactly what he needed.
