Bo Nickal reveals he only took 3 jiu-jitsu classes before challenging Gordon Ryan in grappling match

Bo Nickal loves a challenge.

The highly touted UFC prospect and three-time NCAA wrestling champion was a few months away from challenging for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team but rather than just sit around and wait, he decided to challenge the best grappler on the planet to a match. At the time, Nickal had already decided on a future move to MMA so he reached out to Gordon Ryan about potentially training together so he could start adding new weapons to his arsenal.

“The match the way it came about, I had talked to Gordon a few times about training together because I was like this guy’s the best in the world,” Nickal revealed on Demetrious Johnson’s MightyCast. “For me, that’s the type of people I want to surround myself with and want to learn from. So knowing I was going to transition over to MMA I was like that’s a guy I would like to train with.

“He was competing at an event and he had a big fight and then it fell out and then another guy came in and it fell out. It was like two or three guys had pulled out of the fight for whatever reason I just DM’d him like ‘hey bro, I don’t know what the issue is why nobody will go against you but count me in, I’ll do it. Tell the promoter to hit me up.’ I just wanted to challenge myself and feel it out.”

While Nickal was already an incredibly accomplished wrestler, he had no real knowledge about Brazilian jiu-jitsu much less what it would be like going against an all-time great like Ryan.

So to ensure he was prepared for the grappling match, Nickal decided he should learn a few things.

“So [Gordon] got me in touch with the promoter and they’re like ‘yeah, this would be great, let’s do it,’” Nickal said. “I was like well I better start practicing jiu-jitsu. So I did three jiu-jitsu practices.

“I had never even done any MMA training, just wrestling. I knew some guys in Pittsburgh that had a [Brazilian jiu-jitsu] gym, pretty high level, some pretty high level guys so I was like hey, try to show me some stuff and we’ll get after it.”

Despite a whopping total of three lessons before setting foot on the mat against the consensus best grappler in the world, Nickal still managed to hold his own.

Thanks to his wrestling skills, Nickal was able to fend off many of Ryan’s biggest offensive moves and he even surprised “The King” with a huge suplex that brought him crashing down to the canvas in a dramatic moment during the match.

Unfortunately, Nickal’s inexperience eventually caught up to him after Ryan latched onto a triangle choke that finished the match that nearly went the full 15 minute time limit.

As much as he wanted to win, Nickal admits he still walked away with a valuable lesson learned when it came to what he needed to know for his future in MMA.

“It was bittersweet,” Nickal said. “I wanted to go in there and shock the world and win and just [represent] wrestling and be like ‘see, jiu-jitsu doesn’t work.’ But it also taught me I do need to work on that part of my game and how important it is because it’s very helpful in a fight to be able to decide where the fight goes but for me, I’ve always been a finisher. With wrestling it was always go for the pin, get the pin and so I realized in MMA if I’m going to take a guy down, you can TKO a guy of course but guys are pretty tough. They’re durable and they’re good at not getting hit too much. So you’ve got to figure out ways to pass, to get position, to get the mount, take the back and submit guys. If you’re really good, I think the path of least resistance to get a lot of wins and honestly just to save yourself some effort and some energy and save yourself some brain damage.

“For me, I can throw everybody on the ground and if I found out how to get my jiu-jitsu as good as my wrestling, taking guys’ backs and submitting them, it’s no danger for me and easy wins. So that’s the way I look at it now. My wrestling is world class. I think my jiu-jitsu can become world class very quickly and then as I continue on this journey in martial arts, I’ll develop the striking as well.”

Nickal, who sports a perfect 6-0 record in his MMA career with a fight scheduled against Paul Craig at UFC 309, has continued to learn and evolve in his grappling ever since that match against Ryan.

Perhaps one day, he hopes they might even meet again.

“Maybe in the future we’ll get a rematch,” Nickal said. “I have a blue belt now so I have a little bit more experience.”

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