Former Penn State wrestling star Bo Nickal signs with Real American Freestlye

Nickal attempted to make the USA Olympic Wrestling Team in 2021, but fell short of a team spot to fellow former Penn State national champion David Taylor, who went on to win a gold medal. Nickal fully turned his attention to MMA, opening up an American Top Team gym near Penn State’s campus, training regularly with former UFC superstar Jorge Masvidal in the beginning.

In his four seasons at Penn State, Nickal compiled a 120-3 record, won three NCAA titles (two at 184 pounds and one at 197 pounds), was a four-time All-American (national finalist in 2016 at 174 pounds) and finished his career on a 67-match winning streak.

Nickal’s MMA record fell to 7-1 overall and he is now 4-1 in the UFC following his first loss coming in May. Reinier de Ridder came into the fight ranked No. 13 at middleweight, giving the former Nittany Lion his first ranked opponent.

“My initial reaction was like, I want to go right away. Like, let’s go, you know, get me back in there,” Nickal said on his podcast, Nickals and Dimes, following his loss. “Which is just the competitor in me, right? So I have to balance that with being smart and strategic and further figuring out what’s actually best. We all saw this last fight, and you could tell, like, those guys are definitely a size up relative to me. They’re quite a bit bigger, and it’s just physics and bio mechanics at that point … I don’t think that’s why I lost the fight, but I think that’ll do me some good to put on some size. 

“So bulk up season, we’re going back on the bulk. Gonna get a few extra lifts in, get big and then, yeah, other than that, like, I just want to keep getting better at fighting. And I think there’s a lot of different ways that I could do that, a lot of different things, people that I could go to to improve. And my natural instinct is to get back in there right away. But I don’t know, we’ll see I’m focused on the bulk up and I’m definitely gonna get another fight by the end of the year, like, there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll fight again in 2025.”