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 secured Nickal a highlight reel moment, and later a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus. Though what might be most remembered was Nickal scaling the octagon and flipping off fans inside New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Just what happened there? Nickal (8-1) explained that while speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press post-fight. “I just got transported back to a year ago, MSG, getting some boos from the crowd. So had to let them know how I really felt.”
Nickal has taken a lot of criticism over the past year. First up there was a highly criticized performance, though still a win nonetheless, over Paul Craig at MSG a year ago. Then, there was being finished by Reinier de Ridder this past May.
What it boiled down to for Nickal, it seems, was “feeling like I had something to prove. I have a chip on my shoulder. I wish that I was a little bit better person, but I’m not, I’m very competitive. I’m just a guy. I’m out here trying to do my best, but you get a little emotional out there when you’re fighting in your underwear in front of millions of people.”
And so after hearing fans “jawing” at him and giving him “crap” over 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, just letting them know how I feel.”
The head kick that finished Vieira, Bo Nickal later revealed, is something he works on in the gym consistently.
“Every day. That’s a Mike Brown signature, Mike Brown special. Him and I have been working on that probably since I started fighting,” he revealed. “And it came out in the fight, so grateful that it worked out.”
The fight was also a turning point in Nickal’s mindset, showing a newfound determination to do damage.
“I feel like the last fight was really big for me in changing my mindset from going in and controlling, to going in and doing damage. Obviously you’ve got to control first, but lead into damage from there. It kind of sucks, to be honest it’s my least favorite part of fighting. I love the strategy and the discipline and the commitment, everything it takes to be a world class fighter. Hurting people is not on the top of my list as far as like fun things for me, but it’s part of the sport. It’s what we signed up for. It is what it is.”
With all the talk earlier of standing up for himself against critical fans, you might expect Nickal to be done fighting in New York, at MSG. Not so.
“Ride off into the sunset, right? No, I would love to fight at MSG every year,” replied Nickal, who between wrestling and fighting has competed at the venue three times now. “It’s an amazing arena, the people here are insane. New York is different. It takes a different type of person to be able to compete here.”
Watch the full UFC 322 post-fight press conference with Bo Nickal above.
