The UFC's newest potential star Bo Nickal has promised to quit the sport if he is put on the prelims when he makes his debut this December at UFC 282.
Wrestling prodigy Nickal burst on to the scene after a legendary career on the mat at Penn State to go 3-0 in his professional MMA career and earn a UFC contract in record time. He has already called for fights with the likes of Khamzat Chimaev and appears to be on a fast-track to stardom by appearing on pay-per-view for his promotional debut.
He will face promotional veteran Jamie Pickett in his first fight under the UFC banner, with the North Carolina native more experienced than his previous three opponents put together. Pickett is 13-8 as a professional, meaning he has fought seven times more than Nickal, and is 2-4 in the UFC.
And if they place Nickal on the prelims, as the promotion generally do with stars they are planning to build, he claims he will retire early from the sport. "Am I a prelim guy?" Nickal scoffed when host Ariel Helwani suggested the possibility on a recent episode of The MMA Hour. "I'm not a prelim guy, if I have to fight on the prelims I'll just retire, I'm done.
"I don't know if it's in the contract, but they'll do the right thing, the smart thing. Like I said, if I'm on the prelims I'll retire - I'm out. I've seen them do it before, put a bigger fight on the prelims, but I don't know, I'm a main card guy. It just doesn't make sense. It's Dana White's Contender Series, but I'm main eventing there at 2-0. Every fight I'm in is the main event, so they're putting me on the main card."
Do you believe the hype around Bo Nickal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Nickal is already a huge favourite to beat Pickett, who is currently on a two-fight losing skid and likely fighting for his life in the UFC. His longest fight to date was just two seconds over a minute long, and he is already eyeing up much tougher competition once he gets his debut victory.
He was put on Dana White's Contender Series back in August against the unbeaten Zack Borrego, but when he dispatched him within seconds the promotion called for him to have one more fight. They found the considerably more experienced Donovan Beard, but that bout took ten seconds less, and he was immediately given a debut.
"There wasn't a lot of time in between the fight and [when the Pickett bout was made]," he added. "I just let my manager handle that and so that's not official or anything. That's just people talking, there's not been anything signed and there's no announcement yet by the UFC but that's what we're looking at right now. I would say 99 per cent that's what's going to happen but again, it's not official."
