UFC 309 will mark the Madison Square Garden debut of the sport's biggest blue chipper, Bo Niccal.
Well, in a way.
Well, that's not true.
The 27-year-old wrestling phenom from Pennsylvania has never competed at the Garden. He will break the seal on that honor on Saturday night when he takes on Scotland's Paul Craig.
But Nickal is no stranger to the world's most famous arena, where many tears were shed over his only failure to become the top college wrestler in his weight class.
As a 19-year-old freshman in 2016, the top-ranked 174-pounder in Division I settled for a runner-up matchup against Ohio State's Myles Martin.
“The funny thing is, I was at a Rangers game.” [Tuesday] “I was walking backstage at night and I saw some places that looked like people were crying, so it was like a lot of emotions came back to me,” Nickal recalled to the Post recently at this week's UFC 309 media day. mentioned in. “And I thought, 'Wow, that's really crazy. It was there almost 10 years ago.' And now we're back.”
Nickal (6-0, 6 finishes) usually doesn't lose. He lost just one more time as a sophomore en route to winning three NCAA individual titles and a 120-3 overall NCAA record.
His Olympic dreams fell through at the U.S. Team Trials three years ago, but he has remained undefeated since switching to MMA.
Elite wrestlers can go far in this sport, and Nickal has one of the most endowed pedigrees to make that jump. That's at the heart of why there's so much excitement in fighting games about how far he can go.
The UFC could have quickly caught wind and signed Nickal immediately after his 33-second win in his pro debut in June 2022, but first they'll start with two Contender Series appearances for up-and-comer Dana White. I chose to let it happen.
It's more about leveraging Knickal's already smoldering name value to draw attention to the UFC pipeline program.
As expected, Nikkal is a promotional unicorn.
He has competed exclusively on pay-per-view shows, making his debut on the pay-per-view portion of Jon Jones' heavyweight debut at UFC 285 last year.
(Jones will finally put the championship he won that night on the line for the first time in Saturday's main event against Stipe Miocic.)
Although he says he plans to fight in the intimate UFC Apex, he's smart enough to understand what's going on in managing his budding career.
“This is a great way to show what type of fighter I am, how many people want to see me, and the support I receive from the wrestling community and the ever-growing community of fans. I think it will be,” Nickal said of the marquee placement at the tent pole event. “I don't think they're putting me on pay-per-view cards, UFC 300, MSG, big shows like that for no reason, right? It's just a little bit to help me grow. , also because a lot of people want to see me.”
Most players in their third year of playing the game are still on the local stage, often taking more than five games a year to gain experience, and make some money, but never on the local stage. isn't it.
Nickal's unique combination of wrestling prowess and name recognition, honed over decades, earns him a more comfortable living than someone with only six professional bouts on his books, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have much to offer inside the cage. It was at the cost of experience.
The UFC has kept him at a pace of two fights a year.
Nickal recognizes that what he is dealing with is a double-edged sword.
“It hurts that I don't have the cage time that other people have. In my professional career, I've been in the cage for less than 10 minutes total, but most A guy can accomplish that in one game,” Nickal explains. “From experience, that's a negative. But you also look at the positives. I'm healthy, of course my completion rate is 100 percent, and a lot of people watch me compete. I want to see it. Again, the main focus for me is just to develop, improve, improve. The results of the fight are secondary, right?
Craig (17-8-1, 17th place) is the next big stepping stone in a career that could take Project by leaps and bounds.
A victory over the submission ace, who has previously featured in the UFC's divisional rankings but has lost four of his past five fights, could give him a higher-ranked opponent next year. And some are already envisioning him fighting for the UFC middleweight championship in the not-too-distant future.
But Nikkal is happy with the rhythm of his rise. He is good at the process of adding skills and improving while gaining cage time.
He expects to win UFC gold, but it will come soon.
“In my opinion, there is a lot of work to be done,” says Nickal. “I always have a lot of work to do. Even if I become champion, there is still a lot of development to do, so in my opinion there is no limit to the timeline of the direction we can go. I'm just focused on improving, getting better. If it happens in a year, great. It happens in three years, great. I know where I'm going. . I know my trajectory and that's what I'm really concerned about.”
