It’s two days after Bo Nickal earned a UFC contract and he already has his promotional debut booked.
Thursday, the promotion finalized a middleweight bout between Nickal (3-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) and Jamie Pickett (13-8 MMA, 2-4 UFC) for UFC 282, which takes place Dec. 10 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Two people with knowledge of the matchup recently confirmed the booking to MMA Junkie after an initial report by ESPN, but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Nickal, 28, trucked CFFC champion Donovan Beard en route to a 52-second, UFC contract-earning submission Tuesday at Dana White’s Contender Series. The win moved him to 3-0 in his pro MMA career with three quick, first-round finishes. He has yet to absorb a strike.
Spotlighted long before his MMA career kicked off, Nickal was a three-time Division-I national champion and three-time Big Ten conference champion for Penn State. He won a national championship and an under-23 world championship, both in 2019 in the 92kg (202.8-pound) weight class. He finished college with a 120-3 record, including a combined 61-0 record in his junior and senior years.
In 2019, Nickal earned the 2019 Dan Hodge Trophy, an accolade awarded to the nation’s best wrestler. He also twice won the Schalles Award, an honor given to the nation’s best pinner. In addition, in 2019 he was named Big Ten Athlete of the Year. Nickal is a blue belt in jiu-jitsu and trains at American Top Team in South Florida.
Who is Bo Nickal’s next opponent, Jamie Pickett?
Jamie Pickett is a much more experienced opponent for Bo Nickal as the wrestler-extraordinaire readies himself to make his long-awaited debut in the octagon.
With a record of 13-8, the 34-year-old Pickett has won just two of his last six and is currently enduring a two-fight skid. If the NCAA Division I wrestler can once again make this look easy, we could potentially see ‘The Nightwolf’s’ time in the UFC come to an unfortunate end.
Another standout performance for Nickal could be on the cards when the two middleweights collide at UFC 282. Pickett has lost three times by submission in his career, an area of the game where the newcomer excels.
The Penn State representative has all the tools to succeed in the sport, and if he’s able to bulldoze through his upcoming opponent like each of his previous two matchups, he could find himself battling for a spot in the top 15.