New York, NY — Bo Nickal knows a whole lot about wrestling, and a thing or two about fighting. The wrestling, at least, is something he’s done for the bulk of his life, dating back to when he was a small child.
Despite spending such a long time in the gym, it seems Nickal (7-1) wouldn’t have it any other way. He doesn’t get tired, doesn’t burn out on it all.
“I don’t because it’s the biggest passion I have in my life. It’s something that I’m just so excited to do, and I’m really grateful that I make a career out of this, and go in every day and train,” Nickal explained during Wednesday’s UFC 322 media day, speaking with journalists from around the globe including Cageside Press. “I was thinking the other day that it’s really interesting because I’m basically doing the exact same thing right now that I was doing when I was five, six years old, other than I don’t go to school. Other than that, I’m pretty much in the same routine that I’ve always been in, and I enjoy it.”
Ahead of his fight with Rodolfo Vieira, and coming off the first loss of his fighting career opposite Reinier de Ridder, Nickal admits that he has “changed a lot of stuff mentally.” Ultimately, however, he feels the loss to RDR “has been something that’s really good for me, and something that I’m grateful for. The hard part is just now, it’s felt like a long time, and I’ve been waiting and just working and grinding. Excited to get back in there this weekend.”
After any loss, critics surface, justified or not. Nickal certainly got more than his share of blowback in online circles; some have suggested his attention is divided, as he’s juggling MMA, a podcast, working with the U.S. national team, and competing for Real American Freestyle.
“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 in response to that criticism. “And I feel like, a lot of the stuff, there’s some truth to it. So it’s like, you can maybe look at it from that way or perceive it that way, and maybe there’s 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. 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.”
That being said, Nickal added, he doesn’t approach the critics and their observations with malice. Instead, he tries to “observe it in an unbiased way.” And he added, “to be one hundred percent honest, most of it I don’t even hear. So I’m not really super-worried about it.”
Watch the full UFC 322 media day appearance by Bo Nickal above.
