News Welcome aboard! Masvidal joins the Bo Nickal hype train: "This guy is just as good as I thought"

[burningspear]

Well Pico, that felt obvious since he was only 19-20. Bo is 27, he doesn't really have time to spend years developing on the regional circuit. And let's face it, the UFC is helping Bo develop before challenging him with Jamie Pickett, Tresean Gore, Donovan Beard...none of these guys on paper have/had anything for Bo and he's being matchmaked this way on purpose.

Pico is a very different case, Pico himself and his team wanted all the smoke and thought they could beat world champions before ever even having an MMA debut. As for the prospect Pico was, it was unprecedented. He was the first Cadet world champion from the US in freestyle, a national champion in Folkstyle, an Olympic Trials finalist who beat multiple D1 all Americans and National champions at just 19. He was a multiple time juniors amateur boxing National champion trained under Freddie Roach and a European and Californian Pankration champion.

too much winning needs an adjustment, hubris and arrogance diluted by self reflection and empathy

 

[CJrider]

Masvidal confirms Bo Nikal is a good wrestler.
What a stunning turn of events.

 

[Brigfa2]

Any hype about Bo Nickal at this point is taken with several grains of salt. Not because it is or isn't true but Bo has been fighting and training full time for 3 years now and yet he fought a guy in Donovan Beard who would have never made the cut for the contender series as a hand picked opponent for him to beat, then he fought 13-8 Jamie Pickett in his UFC debut and now he's fighting 4-2 Tresean Gore...two Middleweights that don't even belong in the UFC. Meanwhile we've seen guys with similar backgrounds, take far far far faster tracks in terms of competition and still steamrolled tougher opposition. Right now Bo is just being mollycoddled and groomed.

His first two opponents are no different than Khamzat's
And people hate no matter what, when hyped fighter get ranked fighters, people like you says he doesn't deserve it and he is privileged

 

[HuskySamoan]

His first two opponents are no different than Khamzat's
And people hate no matter what, when hyped fighter get ranked fighters, people like you says he doesn't deserve it and he is privileged

True, no different than Khamzats. However Khamzat fought and beat competition in order to get signed to the UFC and then continued fighting higher level competition in the UFC than Bo has yet to. The privilege is Bo getting signed with spoonfed matchups on the contender series and while in the UFC, something they really didn't do for Khamzat.

 

[Chalky White]

I hope Nickal is the real deal, I can tell how much it means to the UFC and American fans. Their biggest demographic hasn’t produced a champion in years, the UFC is having to force-feed Colby a completely undeserved title shot in an attempt to make it happen. It would be nice to get a legitimate champ that earns his way to a title, though.

I see how happy all the posters here get when they discuss Chris Weidman, it brings them to a special place. Reminds me of older NBA fans when they discuss Larry Bird. I hope that Bo Nickal succeeds for the sake of all you great American fans that are looking for some joy in the UFC again.

 

[Kwic]

Bo has great knees too. Once he hits you, you feel like you got kicked in the balls, you are defenseless.

 

[Mammothman]

Well Pico, that felt obvious since he was only 19-20. Bo is 27, he doesn't really have time to spend years developing on the regional circuit. And let's face it, the UFC is helping Bo develop before challenging him with Jamie Pickett, Tresean Gore, Donovan Beard...none of these guys on paper have/had anything for Bo and he's being matchmaked this way on purpose.

Pico is a very different case, Pico himself and his team wanted all the smoke and thought they could beat world champions before ever even having an MMA debut. As for the prospect Pico was, it was unprecedented. He was the first Cadet world champion from the US in freestyle, a national champion in Folkstyle, an Olympic Trials finalist who beat multiple D1 all Americans and National champions at just 19. He was a multiple time juniors amateur boxing National champion trained under Freddie Roach and a European and Californian Pankration champion.

You are right about Aaron Pico, he fought many experienced guys from the get go, I still would have liked to see Bo get more wins in the regional, maybe one year? Hopefully he does good regardless

 

[Safton]

Any hype about Bo Nickal at this point is taken with several grains of salt. Not because it is or isn't true but Bo has been fighting and training full time for 3 years now and yet he fought a guy in Donovan Beard who would have never made the cut for the contender series as a hand picked opponent for him to beat, then he fought 13-8 Jamie Pickett in his UFC debut and now he's fighting 4-2 Tresean Gore...two Middleweights that don't even belong in the UFC. Meanwhile we've seen guys with similar backgrounds, take far far far faster tracks in terms of competition and still steamrolled tougher opposition. Right now Bo is just being mollycoddled and groomed.

Yeah. I'm still excited to see how he develops and he's got some things to be excited about, but there is absolutely no reason to get ahead of one's self based on what he's accomplished thus far. Honestly I didn't like his performance against Pickett all that much.

I would not be overly surprised if Gore gives him a run for his money despite Nickal being a clear favorite.

 

[Sasha]

I forgot how this happened but went back and of course he slipped on the Monster logo when attempting a high kick.

Not surprising those advertising dollars are more important to the UFC than their fighters having consistent footing in the Octagon.

During that last KSW PPV, it looked like they were fighting on an ice rink during some fights. It'd baffling to me that this can happen in a promotion of that caliber. And I'm not talking about the fifth round of a grappling heavy fight, it was like that at the beginning of the 1st !

That card was awesome though.

Edit : I didn't think about the ad logos ; you'd think they should be, somehow, "hard-printed" on the mat, but they might actually be some kind of very slick, different surface just put on the top of the mat.

 

[Sasha]

When it's not zoomed in, it looks like Pickett just got his left arm torn apart, with bits of flesh hanging from his shoulder and torso lol.
He also look very disappointed in Bo.