Bo Nickal has revealed he 'stuffed' a takedown attempt from Jon Jones when the pair crossed paths ahead of their UFC fights this Saturday.
Nickal, 27, makes his highly-anticipated UFC debut on the undercard of Jones' heavyweight title fight against Ciryl Gane in Las Vegas. Wrestling standout Nickal is one of the hottest prospects in the sport and has an unbeaten record of 3-0, whilst Jones hasn't fought in three years but looks to become one of the few two-weight champions in UFC history by beating Gane for the vacant belt.
Jones and Nickal met each other whilst completing media obligations for their respective fights and had a brief wrestling encounter, both giving different sides of the story. Nickal was complimentary of the Jones' grip in their light-hearted exchange, but warned the UFC legend of the advantage he had despite being several weight classes lighter than him.
“I was able to meet him yesterday at the PI [Performance Institute],” Nickal told reporters including Mirror Fighting. “He tried to take me down, but I obviously stuffed that and ran around and got behind him and stuff. Again, very grateful to be on the card, and he’s definitely a guy that, his fighting style, I’d like to emulate. He had a pretty strong grip, but overall, it was just straight wrestling, so I had a big advantage.”
Jones laughed off the encounter by saying: "It wasn't a wrestling match, Bo is young and ambitious. He's looking for a reason to try and take me down for sure, I'll give him the opportunity if he wants it but I'm an old man with a lot of tricks. We shook hands and kind of got down into a wrestling stance, I think he was thinking that I was going to let his hand go.
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"He went to try and grab my leg then I held his hand and made him do a really awkward motion, we both looked at each other and I said 'I've got some tricks now'. I'm super excited for Bo Nickal, an American wrestler who represents that grit and hard work. I can see him going really far in this sport, he has one of the greatest martial arts down already which I believe is wrestling."
Nickal has already took aim at the top of the middleweight division and believes his world-class wrestling abilities would pose a big threat to the best fighters in the weight class. The 27-year-old has multiple NCAA Division I National Championship gold medals under his belt, which is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics in the US.
