Bo Nickal says he is in the middle of his biggest career weight cut for a fight in his career.
The wrestling standout turned MMA prodigy returns to the octagon this Saturday to face former ONE Championship titleholder Reiner de Ridder in the co-main event of UFC Des Moines.
Nickal opened up a lot of eyes with an Instagram post earlier this week, revealing that he began fight week at a whopping 222.6 pounds. The Penn State wrestling legend was asked if that number was real, or if it was incredible gamesmanship, ahead of his biggest test to date.
“A big part of my last camp these last few months has been to bulk up,” Nickal told MMA Fighting. “I felt like that’s something that I wanted to focus on was getting my weight a little higher and making sure that I’m a full-size middleweight. So coming in at the weight, it’s just part of the job for me. Bringing the weight down is something that I’m used to.
“With wrestling, I’ve weighed in in hundreds of times since I’ve been at a young age and it’s business as usual for me. So that was definitely a little more than what I’m used to, but part of the job. No worries. …
“It was a little heavier than what I expected, and I was wearing a hoodie and stuff like that, so it was a little less than what we saw on the scale, but, yeah, I knew I had a lot of work to do at that moment, but it is again, part of the job.”
Nickal is coming off of a pay-per-view main card victory over Paul Craig this past November at UFC 309 in New York City — which he did in front of current President Donald Trump.
The 29-year-old was asked if this will be his largest cut to make weight in his short MMA tenure this week.
“It’s the biggest cut [for a fight] for sure,” Nickal explained. “I think that I’m always looking to adjust things and make sure that I’m, in each camp and each training cycle, improving and getting better, and I felt like the [extra] size is something that’s good for me.”
The American Top Team standout is 4-0 inside the octagon since earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series. Nickal also competed at the historic UFC 300 event in April 2024 where he stopped Cody Brundage via submission in the second round.
When asked for a mid-week update on his weight cut, Nickal is keeping the mystery to himself.
“Let’s just say I’m a little lighter than what I was earlier this week,” Nickal said. “Yeah, I’m no longer at that weight.”
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