Bo Nickal is back at UFC 309 where he looks to secure his fourth win inside the Octagon against his toughest opponent to date. The undefeated middleweight super prospect will be making the walk at Madison Square Garden to face off with a fellow specialist at 185-pounds.
Whilst Nickal brings a wrestling pedigree to the table that very few can match, the same can be said for the jiu-jitsu skills of Scotland's Paul Craig. Though both men have put a lot of work into rounding out their games, it's clear that this is where both men excel.
In 26 pro fights, Craig has finished half of them by submission and rather than having an approach like Charles Oliveira for example, many of those wins in the UFC have come off of his back when opponents try to land ground and pound from the top position.
In a recent interview with Demetrious Johnson on The MightyCast, Nickal spoke about preparing for an opponent that is so dangerous in one specific area. Though he believes he's been able to adapt to jiu-jitsu very quickly, he's still very young in his MMA career.
This doesn't discourage him from wanting to test himself against a dangerous grappler Craig like who has submitted elite fighters in the Octagon in the past. In fact, it's something that he looks forward to in this fight even though he believes he holds the striking advantage in this match-up.
I think that I have an advantage on the feet but I also think that it would be nice to be able to show my improvements on the ground in my jiu-jitsu game and to be able to compete against a guy like that and just kind of challenge myself, you know. I think that again, there’s problems that he poses and it’s definitely an unusual maybe unorthodox type of style, you don’t see many guys pulling guard anymore. You don’t see guys throwing up triangles and throwing up armbars but I feel prepared.
