Middleweight Bo Nickal returned to action at UFC 322, looking to shake off the first loss of his professional fighting career when he took on Rodolfo Vieira.
Nickal vs. Vieira served as the featured preliminary card bout at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, despite Nickal once having claimed he’d retire before fighting on the prelims. Perhaps the sign of a maturing fighter, after Nickal had been shut down by Reinier de Ridder earlier this year.
ROUND 1: Nickal came out with the aggressiveness we saw in his first couple of fights. He put on the pressure on Vieira, picked him up and slammed him down. Nickal started landing punishing shots, but the Brazilian worked his way back to the feet. Vieira shot a takedown off a failed head kick from Nickal, but the American immediately threatened with a guillotine. The jiu-jitsu master wiggled his way out of it and got back to his feet. The final two minutes were spent on the feet as both fighters traded shots, with Nickal controlling most of the action.
ROUND 2: Nickal showed off his clear striking improvements at the start of Round 2. He was mixing up his targets well, landing solid body kicks and counters up top. The Penn State wrestler was using his clear speed advantage to consistently land pull counters before Vieira could manage to get out of range. After getting busted up for the first three minutes of the round, it was the Brazilian who initiated the wrestling. Vieira pushed Nickal to the fence and tried to get a double-leg takedown, but to no avail. Nickal then timed a big left hand as Vieira was walking into range, but the Brazilian somehow ate it. The round ended with Nickal in a front headlock position after another failed takedown attempt from Vieira.
ROUND 3: The first couple minutes of the final round looked like the first two. The American was doing a good jobs using his feints to keep Vieira guessing and literally beating him to the punch every time. Just as Nickal was flowing, he threw a massive head kick that landed flush on Vieira and knocked him unconscious.
A beautiful, Leon Edwards-lite head kick to put on a bow on what was Nickal’s best UFC performance, thus far. If there was any doubt about Bo Nickal’s character and ability to bounce back from his tough loss last May, there shouldn’t be any now.
Official Result: Bo Nickal def. Rodolfo Vieira by KO (head kick), Round 3, 2:24
