New York – UFC middleweight Bo Nickal brings a very high-level wrestling game, and he’ll get one of the best jiu jitsu players in the promotion in Paul Craig at UFC 309 on Saturday night.
“I think that it’s just a step up in competition for me. Who I fight doesn’t matter as much as the way I’m developing and improving in the sport. I think he’s a guy that has a ton of experience,” Nickal told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.
“He’s a guy that poses a lot of danger and some interesting problems to solve. It makes for my career and where I’m at. It’s not really anything personal at all. It’s just another challenge and another step in the direction that I’m headed. I’m excited for it.”
Nickal (6-0) has said before that no amount of wrestling in camp would help Craig be able to deal with his grappling. Craig echoed the same statement about his Jiu-Jitsu.
“The guys that I’m training with and that I’m working with in jiu jitsu…they’re not good at jiu jitsu for MMA. They’re the best guys in the world in the sport of Jiu-Jitsu. I think he would be surprised how good my overall submission grappling is,” he said.
“The first grappling match I ever took was against Gordon Ryan who’s the pound-for-pound number one fighter in the world, and he couldn’t submit me for 13 minutes. That was with three training sessions in that sport. We can do grappling match after that’s no problem. As far as this fight goes I’m going in there to fight.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Bo Nickal above. He takes on Paul Craig at UFC 309 on Saturday night.
