Bo Nickal remains undefeated, submits Jamie Pickett with arm-triangle at UFC 285
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, March 4, 2023, for UFC 285, going down live from the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
Headlining the event is the return of perhaps the greatest mixed martial arts fighter to ever walk the earth, former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones (26-1), who makes his first appearance in three years tonight to challenge former interim UFC heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane (11-1) for the vacant heavyweight championship.
Co-headlining the event is also a title fight, this one coming at 125 lbs as UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko (23-3) aims to make the eighth-straight defense of her title opposing no. 6 ranked Alexa Grasso (15-3).
Opening up the main card was the UFC debut of standout freestyle wrestler Bo Nickal (4-0), who faced Jamie Pickett (13-9) tonight in just his fourth professional fight.
Pickett had struggled early on his his promotional tenure, going 2-4 through his first six UFC bouts, though he’s exactly seven times more experienced than Nickal in MMA competition, as he also went 7-3 as an amateur.
Nickal on the other hand made his MMA debut in 2021, going 2-0 as an amateur that year, before debuting as a professional in June of 2022, making it to 3-0 as a pro by September. The longest fight of that stretch made it just 62 seconds into the opening round.
Continue reading to see how this middleweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Bo Nickal def. Jamie Pickett via submission (arm-triangle choke) at 2:54 of round one
Nickal misses a head kick and falls to his knees to begin the bout, before Pickett rushes him and Nickal capitalizes by shooting in on a takedown. Pickett stuffs it initially, though he’s pushed up along the fence. He stuffs Nickal’s second shot too, but is taken down with a beautiful knee pick not long thereafter.
Pickett is back to his feet while Nickal holds onto a front headlock.
Nickal takes Pickett down again and takes his back, searching for a rear naked choke and neck crank. He’s unable to secure it, so he goes for the next closest submission, the arm-triangle choke.
It takes a good 80 or so seconds for him to get the tap, but eventually he gets the angle right and secures the submission finish midway through round one.
BO KNOWS UFC 🔥
Former @pennstateWREST great Bo Nickal finishes Jamie Pickett in the first round via submission in his UFC debut 🦁https://t.co/vA7wCty8Du
— The Daily Collegian (@DailyCollegian) March 5, 2023
Bo Nickal is for real, what a performance by him once again.
Name another time we saw a 3-0 talent, now 4-0, look that dominant? We’ll wait.
If you enjoyed this piece, feel free to share it on social media!
