Rumored Bo Nickal vs Reinier de Ridder in the works? Date TBD

[Natural Order]

Battle for the 15.

RDR chokes him out and Nickal retires to coaching.

 

[rjmbrd]

Everyone talking like RDR is the worse striker is a little odd to me. They're both shitty strikers, but RDR has decent height and reach on Bo and I think he'd get the better of the ugly striking exchanges.

Do you consider RDR is in the last 3rd of his career and very settled into his striking potential, and Bo is green and improving every camp?

 

[Mynameisjeff]

Both over-hyped fighters.

 

[mister piscadinha]

i've seen nothing from bo to indicate he could beat RDR right now, risky fight

he could lay'n'pray him, i guess

but these high caliber pure wrestling guys have been disappointing, see rinya vs gafurov


anyway, if he wins, he's the real deal

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

RDR via reverse triangle

 

[gentel]

Hopefully RDR can sub Nutshot Nickal

 

[Luckyme]

Great match making. Glad they are finally testing Bo.

Bo actually has a submission game but hasn't used it against anyone elite like RDR.

Wouldn't be surprised if Bo tried to keep standing like he did against Paul Craig.

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

That's a tough fight. If Bo wins, he's top 10, right?

Casual level comnent.

I don't know if it's a tough fight, Reiner De Ridder was struggling with GM3 and got rocked by GM3 badly on the feet, GM3 is the same guy who gets smoked by any decent fighter(Pyfer, Khamzat) RDR has an inflated ranking off of beating holland who can't grapple. If he is fighting someone who he cannot take down like Bo then he probably loses a striking match

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

are you even familiar with who Reiner is? He's a beast on the ground, has like 5 black belts in judo and a jui-jitsu champion. How is this a favorable matchup for Nickal??

because neither of them can strike for shit and nickal probably isn't getting taken down by de ridder. so it's going to be another slopfest "kickboxing" affair like the craig fight.

 

[wildchild88]

RDR is a decent mma fighter, his striking isn’t great, but he’s really experienced and he knows how to win fights.

I think he takes Bo out..

 

[dominion]

I rather bo fight someone who was NOT a prospect himself. More like a gatekeeper like hermansen

 

[FEDORFAN44]

I don't think Bo wins this, Craig is a dollar store version RDR and Bo did not look good in that fight.

I went with nickal but think rdr is a very dangerous fight for him.i agree Craig is a worse version of rdr.

 

[Gamer007]

First impression is that this is an easy fight for RDR.

 

[CC27]

I rather bo fight someone who was NOT a prospect himself. More like a gatekeeper like hermansen

RDR isnt a prospect, he's 34 and was a double champ in One but I look at it like they are both up and coming in the div and to knock one off in a div like MW which needs the fresh blood I dont love. RDR should kind of be more fast tracked up the div, a fight vs someone like Costa next while Bo I think maybe could have used one more non ranked fight before getting a ranked fight.

Bo's only got 4 UFC fights and 7 total fights. Another fight or two vs Chris Curtis or Edmen Shahbazyan before getting into the rankings wouldnt have been the worst thing.

 

[Luckyme]

Great match making. Glad they are finally testing Bo.

Bo actually has a submission game but hasn't used it against anyone elite like RDR.

Wouldn't be surprised if Bo tried to keep it standing like he did against Paul Craig.

 

[joy2day]

Looks like another match that is tailor made for Bo except with a better fighter.

This is probably a good move to put Bo on the next rung up from his last fight with a favorable stylistic matchup. This is like they used to do it in boxing- slowly move contenders up the ladder rung by rung.

Bo didn't look like he was ready for a top fighter in that last fight- looking lackluster.

 

[pamirec]

I think Bo wins. Good to see him step up in competition.

 

[burningspear]

How's he going to get Nickal down? Expect the usual grappler striking match

 

[MeatGrinder]

Bo seemed weirdly terrified of the prospect of engaging Craig on the ground to the point that he was willing to risk losing a razor-thin sparring match with him on the feet instead. I'm not saying he should have grappled in that fight necessarily, but he did show poor fight IQ by never adjusting what he was doing and letting Craig fight his fight the entire time.

If he's not willing to grapple with Craig, I don't see him being willing to grapple RDR despite his showings in no-gi against the likes of Oliver Taza, Gordon Ryan, etc. So we'll likely see another sloppy kickboxing fight where Bo tries to use his wrestling defensively... which I assume he can do? No one has really tested him there yet inside the cage and RDR is an unexceptional wrestler who relies on one-dimensional entries sometimes.

That said, people keep talking shit on de Ridder's striking... but he acquitted himself well against a vet in GM3 and has way more reps than Bo. Nickal's striking is still very basic and again... dude nearly lost a sparring match to Paul Craig on the feet. I could see him getting outhustled here if he doesn't crack Reinier.

He did the same kind of thing in his Jiu Jitsu matches. He was terrified to engage them in a grappling match and just kept his distance the entire time. He just doesn't seem to have that dog in him. Bo wants to "compete," these other dudes want to smash your fucking face into the ground, theres a big difference in the mentalities here.

 

[whooty]

Tbh I think this is too early for Nickal. It might look good on paper, but RDR is crafty, big and will push a pace on Bo. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes him down a couple times later in the fight and submits him.