Penn State Wrestling Great Bo Nickal to Fight at UFC 300

Originally posted on Nittany Sports Now | By Joe Smeltzer | Last updated Dec 22, 2023 9:38 AM ET

Penn State wrestling great turned UFC up-and-comer Bo Nickal said in July that he might not fight again in 2023.

That ended up being the case.

But Nickal never suggested that he was going anywhere, and he isn’t.

Nickal (2-0) will fight again Saturday, April 13, at UFC 300 in Vegas. His opponent will be Cody Brundage (10-5), a fellow middleweight who will be nearly a month from his 30th birthday by fight night. It will be hard for Brundage to fair worse than Nickal’s two previous UFC opponents or, for that matter, anybody he’s faced in his MMA career.

Penn State great Bo Nickal is fighting again April 13. Will this one make it out of the first round? https://t.co/Gg58IO2Vrd

— Joe Smeltzer (@joesmeltzer775) December 22, 2023

Nickal’s first two UFC fights went a combined 3:32, with the most recent one— a TKO of Val Woodburn at UFC 290 July 8– lasting a whopping 38 seconds.

Nickal’s had five total professional MMA fights and none have gone past the first round.

His athletic legacy was already secure before he reached the UFC.

Nickal is one of the best in the history of arguably the most dominant dynasty in college sports— Penn State wrestling. He won three national titles, was a four-time All-American and the winner of the Hodge Trophy, which is wrestling’s Heisman. He plans to make his UFC career even more dominant, and although he’s still relatively new to the sport, when he fights, it feels like a big deal. April 13 shouldn’t be an exception.

2024 is slated to be a big year for Bo Nickal, and not just professionally. His wife, Maddie— herself a multi-time All-American at Penn State in track & field— has been pregnant since July, news that Nickal announced in an interview with Joe Rogan after his last fight.

This article first appeared on Nittany Sports Now and was syndicated with permission.

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