It’s been a busy weekend in New York City this third weekend of November, none busier than the one had by the staff and crew who call Madison Square Garden their place of employment. Saturday night, just hours before The World’s Most Famous Arena hosted a St. John’s University men’s basketball game (one of eight home games due to be played there this season), MMA took center stage.
As has become an annual tradition, save for 2020, when the UFC held most of its events after a COVID-19 hiatus from late March to early May, Dana White’s promotion set up shop at MSG for UFC 309. Like every UFC pay-per-view that happens in a major venue, there are times during the night where the assembled crowd gets restless.
Despite the star-power in VIP seats bringing about applause from the crowd, one fight resulted in an inverse response from attendees.
Bo Nickal Jeered During UFC 309
During Saturday night’s main card at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Bo Nickal (7-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) took to the famous Octagon to fight Paul Craig (17-9-1 MMA, 9-9-1 UFC) in a middleweight fight. While Nickal has been known to be an explosive fighter throughout his young MMA career, Saturday night’s performance was a stark departure from the norm.
Heading into UFC 309 over the weekend, Nickal scored all six of his career wins inside the distance, but the heavy favorite on the money lines when wagering closed had to work to get his seventh career victory, drawing the ire of the crowd in the process. Despite the Penn State University alumnus using Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation (a favorite at Penn State sporting events, complete with the “We are! Penn State!” chant as part of his walkout sequence), the cheers wouldn’t last long.
He went for a safer gameplan in the opening round of the three, only landing 15 significant strikes, level with Craig in that category, without even so much as attempting a takedown through the first two rounds, at which point the boos started. Nickal had to deal with chants of “Overrated!” from the crowd at Madison Square Garden and was booed for inaction during the contest’s later stages.
Victorious Nickal Puts Everything Into Perspective
For the first time since turning to MMA in the spring of 2022, Bo Nickal, a former member of the Penn State wrestling program, saw a fight of his go to the scorecards. In spite of the crowd’s negative reaction, Nickal bested Craig by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27.)
During his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan on the telecast, he chalked his performance up to a fact of the sport: Not every fight can be won by stoppage.
“I went out there, I dominated 15 minutes,” Nickal began. “These guys want to see blood. They expect me to knock everybody out in 25 seconds or choke them out in a minute and the reality is these guys are all professional fighters that have been training over a decade. I’ve been in this two and a half, three years. I’m fired up about that performance. I thought that was an amazing performance. I dominated him, I cut him, I think if we’d have gone two more rounds, I definitely would have gotten the finish, but I was happy with it.”
UFC CEO White Weighs In on Nickal’s Decision Victory
Following the main event of the evening, UFC CEO Dana White met with the media to discuss the night’s goings-on, Nickal’s victory included.
“We’ve had these discussions with Bo,” White told members of the press Saturday night. “Bo needs work. Bo’s an up-and-coming guy. I know he has big aspirations and wants to move faster than he should, but tonight showed he’s still dominant, he won the whole fight, but he’s got work to do, and that’s all right. We’ll move him. When you’re in a position like Bo is, there [are] a lot of expectations.”
No matter what the crowd thought of Bo Nickal’s efforts inside the famed UFC Octagon this past Saturday night, the stakes were high for him, fighting on the pay-per-view main card of one of the UFC’s tentpole shows of 2024.
Final Thoughts
While the footage of Bo Nickal’s fight versus Paul Craig probably won’t be shown in a video package during a career retrospective at the end of his MMA career, his performance over the weekend was satisfactory. As has been previously mentioned, not all fights in combat sports will be won by a highlight-reel knockout or an electrifying submission.
If a fighter can outpace his opponent over the course of 15 or 25 minutes, like Bo Nickal did on Saturday inside Madison Square Garden against Paul Craig, that’s good enough to get his hand raised after the final bell.
