Bo Nickal has fired back at the people criticizing him for getting a spot on the UFC 300 main card.
The unbeaten UFC middleweight prospect addressed the hate that’s been thrown his way for his April 13 bout against Cody Brundage (10-5 MMA, 4-4 UFC) getting main card placement over other big-name fights. Nickal (5-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) pointed out the obvious, which is that the decision is the promotion’s and not his, and also gave his guess as to why the UFC decided him to put him in the pay-per-view portion of the card.
“I don’t get paid any more or less,” Nickal said on his YouTube channel. “It doesn’t affect me. At the end of the day, the decision was made because I probably sell more. More people want to see me. Why would they put me there? Because more people want to see me. At the end of the day, the most watched spot is the end of the prelims. So if they wanted more people to see me, they would’ve put me at the end of the prelims. But the reality is that they want to sell more pay-per-views, so they put me on the pay-per-view.
“So it’s like, it doesn’t affect me. I get paid the same and I would rather go to bed and have a good night sleep then be up mad late and potentially not get my In-And-Out Burger. It’s all good. It’s not a big deal. All these people are pressed about it. I literally couldn’t care less. … It has literally nothing to do with my opinion, it’s the UFC’s decision.”
There are several former champions in the preliminary card of UFC 300 such as Holly Holm, Jiri Prochazka, Jessica Andrade, Deiveson Figueiredo, Cody Garbrandt, along with other long-time contenders. Yet, Nickal, who’s only competed twice in the promotion, received top billing over many of those names.
Nickal joined the UFC in 2023 after earning a contract in 2022 in Dana White’s Contender Series. Nickal is regarded as one of the best prospects today, given his undefeated status and decorated run as an amateur wrestler at Pennsylvania State University. He’s a three-time NCAA Division I National Champion and was a finalist at the 2020 US Olympic Team Trials.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.
