Bo Nickal vs Cody Brundage opens up early preliminary card at UFC 300
We finally have a few bouts added to the UFC 300 lineup, and all three are epic encounters all of us fans will very much look forward to watching.
UFC 300 is to go down on April 13, 2024, live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The UFC brass recently stated that Bo Nickal (5-0) would open up the early preliminary card at this event, though his opponent was unknown until now. That opponent is fellow wrestler Cody Brundage (10-5).
Bo Nickal has captivated the interest of MMA fans across the globe ever since his 33-second KO victory in his professional debut back in June of 2022. Nickal then went 2-0 on the Contender Series, picking up a 62-second rear naked choke submission over a 3-0 opponent, and then a 52-second triangle choke over a 7-1 opponent en route to signing a deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Since then, Nickal has gone 2-0, both of these victories also coming via first-round stoppage; submitting the 13-8 Jamie Pickett with an arm-triangle choke at 2:54 of round one in his promotional debut before KO’ing the 7-0 Val Woodburn in a mere 38 seconds of his sophomore effort.
Pickett isn’t the best fighter, we know this, and Woodburn was an unknown making his UFC debut. However, Pickett was seven times more experienced than Nickal, and Woodburn was an undefeated knockout artist that was also twice as experienced as himself.
Nickal also went 2-0 with two first-round stoppages as an amateur, picking up each one submission and one knockout inside of two months toward the end of 2021.
Cody Brundage on the other hand lost his Contender Series bout to William Knight, a fight he went into as the LOC middleweight & light-heavyweight champion. He’d rebound with an arm-triangle choke submission of his own five months later at LFA 99 before being called up to fight in the UFC.
Following defeat to Nick Maximov (UD) in his promotional debut, Brundage would rattle off back-to-back victories over Dalcha Lungiambula (guillotine choke) and Tresean Gore (KO), Gore of which was originally expected to be Nickal’s last opponent before Woodburn filled in on short notice.
Nonetheless, a three-fight skid would soon follow, losing to the likes of Michal Oleksiejczuk (KO), Rodolfo Vieira (arm-triangle choke), and Sedriques Dumas (UD). Next would come a DQ win against Jacob Malkoun before his epic slam KO victory over Zach Reese earlier this month at UFC on ESPN 52.
Just as Nickal went 2-0 as an amateur, Brundage went 4-2 prior to turning professional, only losing to Bryan Battle and Dalton Rosta, two very impressive UFC and Bellator talents in their own rights.
Though Brundage’s record may not reflect how good of a fighter he is, he has picked up some impressive wins inside the octagon, and he too, like Nickal, was a standout wrestler before his MMA career.
Brundage went 56-3 as a senior in high school, finishing second in states, and capping off his high school tenure with a record of 128-22. He went on to wrestle for an NCAA Division II college, becoming a two-time NCAA qualifier.
Nickal on the other hand was a three-time state champion in high school, finishing off with a total record of 183-7 that included 131 pins. He’d go on to place all four years at Penn State college, coming in second his first year and winning gold the next three at the NCAA Division I national championships.
He also placed each of those years in the Big Ten Championships, winning bronze in 2017 and gold in 2016, 2018, and 2019 en route to winning both the US National Championships and U23 World Championships in 2019.
This is going to be a good one you do not want to miss!
UFC 300 fight card as of today seen below:
Jiri Prochazka vs Aleksandar Rakic
Aljamain Sterling vs Calvin Kattar
Bo Nickal vs Cody Brundage
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