Bo Nickal Shares Backstage Clash Where Gable Steveson Threatened to Knock Him Out Before UFC 331

Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson entered UFC 331 as a heavy favorite with a 4-0 professional record. However, Sean Sharaf shocked the sport by knocking Steveson out cold just 12 seconds into their heavyweight bout on Sept. 19 in Los Angeles, handing Steveson his first MMA loss.

Before that fight, middleweight contender Bo Nickal had traded insults with Steveson for weeks. Nickal recently shared details about a tense face-to-face meeting on Aug. 22, including a warning Steveson gave him before the stunning knockout loss.

Bo Nickal Details Gable Steveson's Knockout Warning at RAF 12

Nickal is a three-time NCAA champion at Penn State and holds a 9-1-0 professional record. He told Ariel Helwani he approached Steveson at the Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, where the promotion hosted RAF 12: Dvalishvili vs. Cejudo 2. Nickal asked Steveson why he kept taking public shots at him. Nickal said the talk heated up fast as both men argued they came from the same American wrestling background.

“We had a RAF event where we were competing in the same event. I went up to him and I was like, ‘Bro, like, what’s your problem? Why are you talking crazy about me?’” Nickal recalled. “He was like, ‘You are talking about me.’ And I was like, ‘I responded to you. But I was like, ‘We’re both wrestlers. We come from the same background, American wrestling.’”

Nickal stated that the confrontation quickly escalated from there, adding, “And then, honestly, it got kind of heated at that point… I was like, bro, what are you even talking about, man. This is insane. And I remember this so vividly. He was like, ‘I’ll knock you out.’ That’s what he said to me, and I’m like, ‘You absolutely won’t knock me out.’”

Their feud started in July. Before his UFC 329 debut, Steveson claimed he would beat Nickal 10-0 in under a minute in a wrestling match. Nickal then fired back on X, mocking Steveson's transition to MMA and raising questions about his endurance. 

He wrote, "Gable I’ve watched your film, all I’d have to do is let you gas yourself out like vs Cassar in 2019 or Wyatt in 2025. The blueprint is there. Side note I think Hokit would knock your a– out.”

Steveson went on to defeat Elisha Ellison by first-round technical knockout at the 2:31 mark. During his post-fight press conference, Steveson tried to downplay the animosity while taking a direct swipe at Nickal's own Octagon track record. 

"Bo Nickal telling me he's going to gas me out after he got gassed out a couple of fights ago is a crazy thing. I didn't mean no harm. I've got to take a shot at you if you take a shot at me,” Steveson told reporters.

Four weeks after their RAF 12 meeting, Sharaf's left hand knocked Steveson out at the 12-second mark. The stunning upset exposed the massive defensive holes in the wrestling champion's game. On the Pound 4 Pound podcast, former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo said Steveson should spend a full year developing his defensive striking before fighting again.

Bo Nickal Prepares for Joe Pyfer Bout

Nickal knows how it feels to suffer an early blow to a perfect record. Back in May 2025, Reinier de Ridder stopped him in the second round at UFC Fight Night in Des Moines, shattering Nickal's seven-fight winning streak. Since that setback, Nickal has bounced back, racking up consecutive finishes over Rodolfo Vieira and Kyle Daukaus. 

Meanwhile, Nickal's own schedule has undergone a major shift. His highly anticipated middleweight bout against Joe Pyfer was originally slated for the UFC 335 pay-per-view card on Dec. 12. However, plans changed when the promotion decided to pull the matchup from the Las Vegas event. 

According to Nickal, the UFC rescheduled the bout so the two middleweights could instead headline a Fight Night card in Cleveland, OH in February 2027. The promotion has not officially announced the date for the Cleveland card yet.