April 13, 2024 • 21 mins
Bo Nickal sits down with Daniel Cormier in the newest edition of the DC Check-In at UFC 300! Nickal talks about his toughest fight to date against Cody Brundage, and what a victory means for his title hopes. Plus, Cormier asks Nickal directly about his beef with Jordan Burroughs following his commentary at the NCAA Wrestling Championships. And don't miss Bo breakdown his chances at fighting Khamzat Chimaev! #Volume #Herd
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 1 (02:05):
Guys, I'm here with bull Nickel fights on the main
cart of UFC three hundred this weekend against Cody Brundage.
Bull Nickel, thanks for checking. It will be man. I
appreciate it every time you stop by. I never take
for granted your time.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Well, I appreciate you having on. Man, it's always good
to chat with fellow wrestler, fellow fighter.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah to the haters, all right, you guys, we'll just start. Yeah,
what do you say to the haters? Man?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
You know, it's funny because the hater thing, I definitely
you know, if you're paying attention at all, you can
kind of see people get upset. You know. They don't
like that I'm getting pushed. They don't like how fast
I'm getting to where I'm going. And I feel like
what happened happened wrestling and will happened and fighting the
same as these people will realize, you know a little
later than some other people that I was just that guy,
(02:54):
you know, and when I mentioned, you know, when I
got to college and wrestling, I was the same person.
But no, but he knew me. And who's this guy
from Texas? Why does he think he could wrestle this
and that? And then you know, the match is piled
up and the wins piled up, and now you know
they even Iowa fans or whatever Oklahoma State fans can
appreciate it. They can appreciate what I was able to
do on the mat.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
We hated you though, like we we kept hating you
even he was winning, because it was like we were like, damn, man,
he's still win it.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
I think I think that you know, when you can
look back on it now, but you respect it, it's respected,
you respect it. I think it'll be the same thing
in fighting, just because I'm at a position now where
there really hasn't been fighters, you know, at five and
oh competing on main cards, big UFC events, things like that.
You know, it happens, but it's very rare, and so
I think that people will just kind of come to
(03:42):
realize a little later after I've you know, achieved my
goals and done what I wanted to do, that you
know it all made sense.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Would really suck to us at old you know, you
went past still Water to go to Penn State. That
was the problem.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Like generally we have.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Had there was a good guy. Maybe we get the
guy from Texas, right, like that's kind of what we thought.
But but you still on your business man, you said,
I'm not fighting on the prelims. What gave you the
confidence to do that? Because I got to be honest, well,
I've never seen that. I've never seen somebody say it,
and it actually worked out because it's easy to see
that you have a ton of potential, right and the
(04:14):
UFC sees that also what made you confident enough to go, hey,
I'm not doing that. I'm not fighting on the prelims.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Well, in the moment, it was just kind of funny
because it was off the cuff with Ariel. He was like,
where are you gonna fight? And I'm like, bro, like
what do you think? Like you know, I thought he
was asking a rhetorical question, and it turned out that
I was the one that was that was on the
other page, where everybody else was like, of course, but
he'll be on the prelims. But for me, I don't know.
I'm I was just always the main event in my mind,
(04:41):
and you know in wrestling, that was like the NCAA tournament.
I was the two out of my four years competing.
I was the last match in the night, yep, and
always one of the most watched guys and stuff. So
I think that was just kind of my expectation and
my assumption, and now it's I definitely have a different
view on it now because under standing the game, understanding
the sport, I think being put on the main card
(05:03):
is obviously a big deal, but also understand there's there's
a business aspect of it where I guess two parts. One,
I get paid the same whether I'm the first fight last, Yeah,
for sure, So it's not really that big a deal
to me. Like a lot of people were upset, but
for me, I'm like, I'll fight whatever, it doesn't really matter.
But two, the UFC is at the end of the day,
they're just trying to sell pay per views. So it's
(05:24):
not my call, it's their call, and they're doing what.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You obviously bring something to it. Cody Brunditch, Right, he's
a wrestler, right, Obviously he doesn't wrestle at the level
that you does. Do you feel like this is the
logical next step? It was just the guy that they
offered you right away or was there someone else?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
This is the first guy that offered me, and I
felt like it made sense, you know. I think he's
a little bit of a step up in competition for
me relative to my other opponents, which is what I'm
trying to do every single fight. I want to have
a step up and compete against better and better guys.
And also, as you mentioned, no, he's a wrestler has
collegiate wrestling experience. That presents a new problem for me
that I'll have to solve. But I feel prepared and
(06:04):
ready to go, and yeah, you know, I'm just excited
to perform.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You know. What's what's crazy is that people will want
to question, well, what does BO do when a guy
can defend takedowns?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Right?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
There's not gonna be many that can defend takedowns, And
that's kind of like with me, I was, Oh, what
Daniel can't wrestle. I'm like, I'm gonna take this guy down.
As a matter of I can hold him down, right,
that's a different thing. But he's getting taken down. What
do you think happens when you can't get the takedown
on first attempt?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Yeah, it's a great question, you know, I think that
for me, a lot of those answers have already come
in training. You know, I'm training with really tough guys,
really high level guys that have experienced, you know, MMA
at the absolute pinnacle, right, Guys like Marvin Vatory who's
far for the belt, Guys like Johnny Evelin, who's he's
good a champion, you know, So these guys are the
(06:55):
guys that I'm training with every day, and you know,
obviously I'm not running through right Like, yeah, I'm meeting
resistance and that's something that I welcome and that I'm
excited about. And so when I go into a fight,
you know, I don't question that. And I'm working on,
you know, developing the entirety of my MMA game, right Like,
you know, the if I try to win a fight
(07:16):
with just wrestling, then it's gonna be hard to beat
the best guys, right Like, I have to develop these
other skills boxing, jiu jitsu, muay Thai, and so you know,
I'm putting a lot of time and effort into that Val.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Right A, bro, Doug, what happened with Val?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Like?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Why didn't Val move? When you were? You surprised? When
you rock him and he's just kind of standing there
like that, you jump back hit him again, He's still
standing there? What are you?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Like?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
What is happening?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I was just like, honestly, at that point after I
hit him the first time, you know, I don't know
if it's like this for Unify, but it seems like everything.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Slows, no doubt, he was just standing there.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And I felt like I made about thirty decisions in
that one second, and it was all right, am I
gonna back off? Am I gonna try to take him down?
And then at that moment, it was just like let
the instinct take over, and that was the instinct that
I have was just knock him out and so boom,
landing some more shots on him and put him out.
I think that that's just my natural instinct. If you
watch my wrestling matches, who's go for the pin. It
(08:12):
didn't matter if the guy was the number fifty guy
or the number two guy, right if I had an
opportunity to finish him than I did.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
That was like the most that was. That had to
be the best feeling, right is it? Look? Pinning somebody's great?
I mean I've never experience pinting somebody into double a
tournament awesome. It can't compare to that when you put
somebody out with your hands, because I mean you and
you hit valve with that second combination and he went down.
You must have been like, oh my god, this is
like something I've never experienced in my life.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, you know, it's it's for sure, you know you
you kind of compared it to a pin and pinning
the guy is great, But there's nothing like knocking to
do that out. It's it's beliefle It's like you know
when when your first fight with step A, you knocked
him out, It's like you could just that feeling hit
him on the chin. It's almost like you didn't hit
him right.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You don't feel it.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
You don't feel it when you actually hit him. Like
when you're knocking a guy out, you don't feel it.
You might hit the guy in the head and be like, ah, crap,
that hurt my hand, But when you hit him in
the chin and they're out, it's like you didn't even
hit anything. Yeah, but uh yeah, it's there's nothing really
that compares to that.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Every guy that fights you now goes this guy's chosen
by the UFC, and they're mad, I'm gonna put him
in his place? What do you expect from Cody Brundies
this weekend? Because he is also in that position right
where they all carry a chip on their shoulders because
they wonder, why not me? What makes bo Nickel different
than me? Why does he get this? I'm only on
(09:30):
the main cart because I'm fighting him. He's got five fights.
It makes them want to train harder, train longer. What
do you expect to see in Cody brund Is Because
we can't think that he's the best, the same guy
that Sadrincas beat, Right, He's not gonna be that guy.
But he's also gonna be the guy that won his
last fight. But he wants he's gonna be better for sure.
(09:51):
But what do you expect from him?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
You know, anytime I compete against somebody, I always expect
their best just because it's gonna be a big opportunity
for them and U as you mentioned, I have a
big push and there's a lot going for me and
they want to take that, right, So I just expect
people to be more motivated. And uh, that motivates me
even more because I feel like, like like I am
(10:12):
that guy and this is this is these are my
goals and this is what I want to do and
he's trying to stop me from that. And so it's
not personal or anything, but as much motivation as he
has to like take whatever I have, like, I just
have that much more to stay on top.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Do you like, do you look at a guy like
Cody Brundens and go, I've got to find something that
makes it a tad bit personal because it can't just
be competition, right when it's a fight. In the wrestling match,
you and I can go out and compete against each
other one hundred times. Yeah, but when it's a fight,
it has to have a little bit something more. Where
(10:47):
do you bow Nickel find that that extra thing to
make you go This dude's trying to take food off
my table with his fists, Like, what do you? Where
do you find that from?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Yeah, you know, I think that it's it's mostly just
in my competitiveness. You know, I grew up in a
in a very competitive environment. Both my parents were college athletes,
and so it was never okay to lose anything. And
I think fighting is is that but heightened, Right, everything's
heightened your senses or heightened. It's a it's a bigger deal.
The consequences are bigger. And so for me, regardless of
(11:19):
who it is, it's it's, uh, you know, I'm gonna
get what I want and I'm gonna achieve my goals,
and it doesn't matter who's there in front of me.
And if you decide that you know you were gonna
sign the contract and fight me. I almost take that
as like a little bit of disrespect. Yes, it's like
you know, like I know you're not that dumb, right,
that's the.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Thing, right, that's the one I was wondering, Like where
do you get it? It's that, Yeah, you have to
have something though, right.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, yeah, well I'll say this. You know, when I train,
I'm training with my friends, right, like training partners. I
can't hit them like all l like real very light
but like I can't. I can't turn anything over on them.
And you don't want to do that to your training
partners anyways. Nope, but I love these guys, and so
it's like I'm that much more excited to actually hit
somebody as hard as I can, like in a real fight,
(12:04):
because I don't do that for the entirety of camp.
Everything's pulled. And so now I have this this random
dude out here that one has had the audacity to
sign up to fight me and and and thinks he's
gonna and two things, he's gonna win. And so now
it's like, all right, bro, let's let's do it.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Then let's go what is the expectation, Like, what do
you think that this fight looks like? Because that card,
this card when it starts by the time you guys
walk to the people who have already seen I mean, hell,
eight former champions. Yeah, they will be on fire for sure.
What is the expectation of the fight?
Speaker 3 (12:40):
I love that, you know. For me, the expectation is
just the best of my ability, like whatever that looks like,
and wherever the fight goes, I'll be prepared and ready.
And uh, I'm always looking to finish. So you know,
if this guy gets out of the first round, I
would probably I think that I don't think he'll be
able to get out of the first round. But if
you yeah, if he does, then nowhere is I get
to I get to test this cardio a little bit.
(13:02):
I'm not worried at all about mine. And uh, you know,
I'll just continue to look for the finish the whole fight.
So that's that's my plan, that's all. And it's never
a rush thing. It's never something where I'm you know,
over pursuing that and that comes from years and years
of wrestling understanding how to compete for you know, knowing
that you have this much time in a match. But
(13:22):
I don't believe that he'll be able to last the
whole fight.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Jacob malcoun was able to successfully take him down. Did
you watch that?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
How much did you take from that?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
A lot? You know, I think that for me, film
studies huge. I do a ton of film study, always
watching my opponents and and watching guys that who I
respect and look up to and or think who I
think are doing things right. So to see my opponent
be taken down by a guy that's really not a
wrestler is definitely something that just shows me a hole
in his game. I think a lot of wrestlers they
(13:52):
forget that where they come from. They start just you know,
falling in love with striking boxing, you know, not working
on the wrestling. And so I'm sure he worked a
lot of this camp, but to me, that just says that,
however long he's been training in MMA, he's kind of
let that skill go maybe a little bit. And obviously
that's not the case with me. I'm still wrestling the
Penn State.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
That's what I was wondered, how much are you wrestling still?
A lot?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
My last workout was with Nick Lee, who's a World
Team member, multiple time national champion, and so I'm in
the wrestling room probably three or four times a week,
wrestling the best guys in the world. And yeah, you
know there's no no substitute for.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
That, no substitute for that. And those guys that want
to put a wrestling training camp together, if you go,
I'm gonna rest for twelve weeks to make sure I
can defend this guy's take down. Yeah, it's not happening.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
No, And also like I'm gonna punch you, right, yeah,
I think everybody knows that now after my last fight, Like,
I'm not trying to come in and call or tie
you and ankle pick you like I'm I'm gonna test
your chin and take you down at the same time.
So that's something that you know you can. You can
try to try to sprawl, try to work on your wizards,
all that stuff. It doesn't matter. It's really kind of
(14:56):
a waste of time.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Hey, it's okay, all right, big fight this week, and
it's gonna be fantastic. I've been won ask this one.
I've been waiting for it. Like so in the professional
wrestling world, right, it's a work, right, were you and
I working, Bo, You're not gonna do this. We're gonna
do this. We're gonna do this, And then sometimes we
work ourselves into a shoot. A shoot means it turns real. Okay,
(15:20):
the Jordan Burros date, did you work yourself into a shoot?
Like were you serious or were you kind of like
working the public and then it turned into like a
real thing.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Now I was one hundred percent serious, you know, for me,
I love I asked him the question. I asked him
the question, he chose the answer the way he chose
the answer, and and to me, the way I took
it was, this is Carter Stratci's moment, this is my brother,
this my teammates, my family. And one you're you're making
(15:52):
it about you and not him, and I get you answer.
I asked him the question already, but it was just
kind of a lead up to up to that point.
And two, I felt like, as a commentator, like I'm
not gonna judge anybody on on what they what they
think or how they're going to compete, But as a commentator,
I just felt like that was that was over the line.
(16:12):
And had it not been a friend of mine, you know,
I probably wouldn't say anything. But I just feel like
all these guys around me like I have their back,
and if nobody wants to say anything, you know, I'm
gonna be the guy that that steps up. And I
just didn't like it. I didn't appreciate it. I felt
like it was not very classy in that moment to
say that and double down on it too. But it
(16:33):
is what it is, you know. I feel like.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Carter obviously Carter took offense to it too, And that's
the thing for me too.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Like I said, if it was just a random guy whatever,
like it's not a big deal to me, But this is.
These guys are like my family. So anytime I feel
like disrespect coming at a family member of mine or
I feel like, you know, somebody's coming at them, like,
I'm gonna be the guy that like puts that to rest,
like no, like that's not how we're going to do things.
So yeah, I didn't like what he had to say,
and I made And.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Now you're the guy that knows how to fight, right,
so like you can help him in more ways than before,
because you know before, when you just get wrestled, it
really is different.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
It's different.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
So before I let you go, I got one question.
How in the world has Kill convinced these guys that
it's all just fun. It's not that fun, bro, wrestling
is not that they're all like Coach just says to
have fun. Like it's hard, it's like really hard, like,
but he's convinced you guys that it's just fun. How's
(17:29):
he done that?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I don't know that I could even sum that up.
I think that it's a combination of things. I think
that we get kids who have a genuine appreciation and
enjoyment for the sport.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
They seem to love wrestling.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
People they love wrestling. But then there's a lot of
guys that love wrestling and then get into college wrestling
and lose that love. And I think that what coach
does is just he creates an environment that we're not
down in the dumps. It's just very positive, very uplifting.
You know, if if he comes to you and says
(18:03):
that you're doing something wrong, it's because he wants to
help you and he makes that apparent and it's it's
to work and build right, Like we don't focus on
the negatives, like you know, guy might lose a match
and it's on to the next it's what can we
do better and how can we improve? So I think
that just that overall positivity really makes the environment actually fun.
(18:24):
You know outside of just like the sport, right, like
you're just somewhere that you want to be. That's why
I still go train there. Yeah, you know, obviously the
wrestling is pig but I have fun when I go
into practice and we're having a good time, right Like
how often that you hear people say that, But it's
genuinely fun for us, and I think that we just
structure it. The coach Kaler structures it a little differently,
and he makes it that it's not this heavy grind
(18:46):
of you know, walking out with my head down. It's
everybody's having a good time fun. A lot of the
work we do is like on our own, so it's
you know, you're you're up. It's up to you, like
how much you're gonna do things like that, and they're
they just kind of meet you where you're at, which
is unique in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I saw that in the Mess and Brin match when
he kind of messed up the score at the time
in Yeah, they didn't yell at him or anything, kind
of just walk him off to Matt, gave mahof told
him good job.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah that's crazy. Yeah, And that's just something that I
think has been consistent right, Like they're always just there
for you and they want to help you achieve your goals.
But it's kind of like I think, you know, when
you see a wrestling dad that wants it more than
their kid, like, it just ends up negative.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
It really does.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
But with coach kal like and I think it can
be the same with coaches. And I don't think he
wants it any more than us, Like he wants us
to achieve our goals as much as we want to
achieve it, right, So I think that it just kind
of all lines and works out, and like I said again,
it just it makes it more positive.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
On fighting, Like do you ever think that he'll come
and watch you compete?
Speaker 3 (19:44):
I would love to have him come, you know. Of
course it's tough with their schedule. They're always busy doing
their thing, Like we got Olympic trials next weekend, so
they're prepping all the guys for that. But I would
love to do a flight and have him come watch.
Even if I could do one at Penn State at
Bryce Jordan's and have him come, that would be good.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
He always his pack, Yeah, it.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Would be it would be great. I don't think he's
ever been to one so I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
One time John went bro and I was like a
kid again, Look, I won a world title, coach, Coach,
like I did it. I won a world title Like,
I'm like, grow the fuck up there, and they're like,
Jesus Christ, coach. It's so embarrassing, And I was so
when I was done, I was like, I'm the world
chimp and I'm like, pander into this dude with the belt.
Come on, guys, bo Nickel competes this weekend. You have
(20:27):
c three hundred on the main cards for all they
hate to stop step back because I don't know that
he's ever gonna be on a prelimb takes on Cody
Brundage at one hundred and eighty five pounds. Bow Nickel,
you are not afraid to call somebody's name, e do you?
And you're one of the only people that says Hamzat's name.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. So that's
to me. Uh, that's the fight to make. I think
everybody knows it. People talk. I talk a lot about reputation,
and you know, I'm trying to build my reputation. He's
a guy that's done a great job of building his
but uh, we're gonna.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Make that fight happen and then don't scare you at all.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
No, I'm not afraid of anybody, So I'm just ready
to compete. So if you're the best, that's who I
want to fight against.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
That boy, Bull Nickels something else, Man, Bull Nichols fighting
US three hundred this weekend. Tap into everything Bull's doing.
You got a YouTube channel, right YouTube, Go to Bow's
YouTube channel. Follow him on Instagram X formerly known this Twitter.
I just learned how to say that X formerly known
that Twitter. Yeah, yeah, that's that shit. Now that's what
you say. And everything that Bow Nichols doing, man, tap
(21:23):
into it. He's a phenomenal wrestler mixed martial artist now
and he's gonna fight this weekend on the biggest fight
card of all time. Till next time, guys like subscribe,
tell your friend to tell a friend that DC's got
a YouTube channel, and I'm checking in with guys like
Bow Nickel. Till next time, Peace,
Line. All right, guys, it's March, so you know what
that means. It's March Madness time. Look, March Madness is
one of the best times in sports in the entire year.
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Speaker 1 (02:05):
Guys, I'm here with bull Nickel fights on the main
cart of UFC three hundred this weekend against Cody Brundage.
Bull Nickel, thanks for checking. It will be man. I
appreciate it every time you stop by. I never take
for granted your time.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Well, I appreciate you having on. Man, it's always good
to chat with fellow wrestler, fellow fighter.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah to the haters, all right, you guys, we'll just start. Yeah,
what do you say to the haters? Man?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
You know, it's funny because the hater thing, I definitely
you know, if you're paying attention at all, you can
kind of see people get upset. You know. They don't
like that I'm getting pushed. They don't like how fast
I'm getting to where I'm going. And I feel like
what happened happened wrestling and will happened and fighting the
same as these people will realize, you know a little
later than some other people that I was just that guy,
(02:54):
you know, and when I mentioned, you know, when I
got to college and wrestling, I was the same person.
But no, but he knew me. And who's this guy
from Texas? Why does he think he could wrestle this
and that? And then you know, the match is piled
up and the wins piled up, and now you know
they even Iowa fans or whatever Oklahoma State fans can
appreciate it. They can appreciate what I was able to
do on the mat.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
We hated you though, like we we kept hating you
even he was winning, because it was like we were like, damn, man,
he's still win it.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
I think I think that you know, when you can
look back on it now, but you respect it, it's respected,
you respect it. I think it'll be the same thing
in fighting, just because I'm at a position now where
there really hasn't been fighters, you know, at five and
oh competing on main cards, big UFC events, things like that.
You know, it happens, but it's very rare, and so
I think that people will just kind of come to
(03:42):
realize a little later after I've you know, achieved my
goals and done what I wanted to do, that you
know it all made sense.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Would really suck to us at old you know, you
went past still Water to go to Penn State. That
was the problem.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Like generally we have.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Had there was a good guy. Maybe we get the
guy from Texas, right, like that's kind of what we thought.
But but you still on your business man, you said,
I'm not fighting on the prelims. What gave you the
confidence to do that? Because I got to be honest, well,
I've never seen that. I've never seen somebody say it,
and it actually worked out because it's easy to see
that you have a ton of potential, right and the
(04:14):
UFC sees that also what made you confident enough to go, hey,
I'm not doing that. I'm not fighting on the prelims.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Well, in the moment, it was just kind of funny
because it was off the cuff with Ariel. He was like,
where are you gonna fight? And I'm like, bro, like
what do you think? Like you know, I thought he
was asking a rhetorical question, and it turned out that
I was the one that was that was on the
other page, where everybody else was like, of course, but
he'll be on the prelims. But for me, I don't know.
I'm I was just always the main event in my mind,
(04:41):
and you know in wrestling, that was like the NCAA tournament.
I was the two out of my four years competing.
I was the last match in the night, yep, and
always one of the most watched guys and stuff. So
I think that was just kind of my expectation and
my assumption, and now it's I definitely have a different
view on it now because under standing the game, understanding
the sport, I think being put on the main card
(05:03):
is obviously a big deal, but also understand there's there's
a business aspect of it where I guess two parts. One,
I get paid the same whether I'm the first fight last, Yeah,
for sure, So it's not really that big a deal
to me. Like a lot of people were upset, but
for me, I'm like, I'll fight whatever, it doesn't really matter.
But two, the UFC is at the end of the day,
they're just trying to sell pay per views. So it's
(05:24):
not my call, it's their call, and they're doing what.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You obviously bring something to it. Cody Brunditch, Right, he's
a wrestler, right, Obviously he doesn't wrestle at the level
that you does. Do you feel like this is the
logical next step? It was just the guy that they
offered you right away or was there someone else?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
This is the first guy that offered me, and I
felt like it made sense, you know. I think he's
a little bit of a step up in competition for
me relative to my other opponents, which is what I'm
trying to do every single fight. I want to have
a step up and compete against better and better guys.
And also, as you mentioned, no, he's a wrestler has
collegiate wrestling experience. That presents a new problem for me
that I'll have to solve. But I feel prepared and
(06:04):
ready to go, and yeah, you know, I'm just excited
to perform.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You know. What's what's crazy is that people will want
to question, well, what does BO do when a guy
can defend takedowns?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Right?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
There's not gonna be many that can defend takedowns, And
that's kind of like with me, I was, Oh, what
Daniel can't wrestle. I'm like, I'm gonna take this guy down.
As a matter of I can hold him down, right,
that's a different thing. But he's getting taken down. What
do you think happens when you can't get the takedown
on first attempt?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Yeah, it's a great question, you know, I think that
for me, a lot of those answers have already come
in training. You know, I'm training with really tough guys,
really high level guys that have experienced, you know, MMA
at the absolute pinnacle, right, Guys like Marvin Vatory who's
far for the belt, Guys like Johnny Evelin, who's he's
good a champion, you know, So these guys are the
(06:55):
guys that I'm training with every day, and you know,
obviously I'm not running through right Like, yeah, I'm meeting
resistance and that's something that I welcome and that I'm
excited about. And so when I go into a fight,
you know, I don't question that. And I'm working on,
you know, developing the entirety of my MMA game, right Like,
you know, the if I try to win a fight
(07:16):
with just wrestling, then it's gonna be hard to beat
the best guys, right Like, I have to develop these
other skills boxing, jiu jitsu, muay Thai, and so you know,
I'm putting a lot of time and effort into that Val.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Right A, bro, Doug, what happened with Val?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Like?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Why didn't Val move? When you were? You surprised? When
you rock him and he's just kind of standing there
like that, you jump back hit him again, He's still
standing there? What are you?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Like?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
What is happening?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I was just like, honestly, at that point after I
hit him the first time, you know, I don't know
if it's like this for Unify, but it seems like everything.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Slows, no doubt, he was just standing there.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And I felt like I made about thirty decisions in
that one second, and it was all right, am I
gonna back off? Am I gonna try to take him down?
And then at that moment, it was just like let
the instinct take over, and that was the instinct that
I have was just knock him out and so boom,
landing some more shots on him and put him out.
I think that that's just my natural instinct. If you
watch my wrestling matches, who's go for the pin. It
(08:12):
didn't matter if the guy was the number fifty guy
or the number two guy, right if I had an
opportunity to finish him than I did.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
That was like the most that was. That had to
be the best feeling, right is it? Look? Pinning somebody's great?
I mean I've never experience pinting somebody into double a
tournament awesome. It can't compare to that when you put
somebody out with your hands, because I mean you and
you hit valve with that second combination and he went down.
You must have been like, oh my god, this is
like something I've never experienced in my life.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, you know, it's it's for sure, you know you
you kind of compared it to a pin and pinning
the guy is great, But there's nothing like knocking to
do that out. It's it's beliefle It's like you know
when when your first fight with step A, you knocked
him out, It's like you could just that feeling hit
him on the chin. It's almost like you didn't hit
him right.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You don't feel it.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
You don't feel it when you actually hit him. Like
when you're knocking a guy out, you don't feel it.
You might hit the guy in the head and be like, ah, crap,
that hurt my hand, But when you hit him in
the chin and they're out, it's like you didn't even
hit anything. Yeah, but uh yeah, it's there's nothing really
that compares to that.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Every guy that fights you now goes this guy's chosen
by the UFC, and they're mad, I'm gonna put him
in his place? What do you expect from Cody Brundies
this weekend? Because he is also in that position right
where they all carry a chip on their shoulders because
they wonder, why not me? What makes bo Nickel different
than me? Why does he get this? I'm only on
(09:30):
the main cart because I'm fighting him. He's got five fights.
It makes them want to train harder, train longer. What
do you expect to see in Cody brund Is Because
we can't think that he's the best, the same guy
that Sadrincas beat, Right, He's not gonna be that guy.
But he's also gonna be the guy that won his
last fight. But he wants he's gonna be better for sure.
(09:51):
But what do you expect from him?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
You know, anytime I compete against somebody, I always expect
their best just because it's gonna be a big opportunity
for them and U as you mentioned, I have a
big push and there's a lot going for me and
they want to take that, right, So I just expect
people to be more motivated. And uh, that motivates me
even more because I feel like, like like I am
(10:12):
that guy and this is this is these are my
goals and this is what I want to do and
he's trying to stop me from that. And so it's
not personal or anything, but as much motivation as he
has to like take whatever I have, like, I just
have that much more to stay on top.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Do you like, do you look at a guy like
Cody Brundens and go, I've got to find something that
makes it a tad bit personal because it can't just
be competition, right when it's a fight. In the wrestling match,
you and I can go out and compete against each
other one hundred times. Yeah, but when it's a fight,
it has to have a little bit something more. Where
(10:47):
do you bow Nickel find that that extra thing to
make you go This dude's trying to take food off
my table with his fists, Like, what do you? Where
do you find that from?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Yeah, you know, I think that it's it's mostly just
in my competitiveness. You know, I grew up in a
in a very competitive environment. Both my parents were college athletes,
and so it was never okay to lose anything. And
I think fighting is is that but heightened, Right, everything's
heightened your senses or heightened. It's a it's a bigger deal.
The consequences are bigger. And so for me, regardless of
(11:19):
who it is, it's it's, uh, you know, I'm gonna
get what I want and I'm gonna achieve my goals,
and it doesn't matter who's there in front of me.
And if you decide that you know you were gonna
sign the contract and fight me. I almost take that
as like a little bit of disrespect. Yes, it's like
you know, like I know you're not that dumb, right,
that's the.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Thing, right, that's the one I was wondering, Like where
do you get it? It's that, Yeah, you have to
have something though, right.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, yeah, well I'll say this. You know, when I train,
I'm training with my friends, right, like training partners. I
can't hit them like all l like real very light
but like I can't. I can't turn anything over on them.
And you don't want to do that to your training
partners anyways. Nope, but I love these guys, and so
it's like I'm that much more excited to actually hit
somebody as hard as I can, like in a real fight,
(12:04):
because I don't do that for the entirety of camp.
Everything's pulled. And so now I have this this random
dude out here that one has had the audacity to
sign up to fight me and and and thinks he's
gonna and two things, he's gonna win. And so now
it's like, all right, bro, let's let's do it.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Then let's go what is the expectation, Like, what do
you think that this fight looks like? Because that card,
this card when it starts by the time you guys
walk to the people who have already seen I mean, hell,
eight former champions. Yeah, they will be on fire for sure.
What is the expectation of the fight?
Speaker 3 (12:40):
I love that, you know. For me, the expectation is
just the best of my ability, like whatever that looks like,
and wherever the fight goes, I'll be prepared and ready.
And uh, I'm always looking to finish. So you know,
if this guy gets out of the first round, I
would probably I think that I don't think he'll be
able to get out of the first round. But if
you yeah, if he does, then nowhere is I get
to I get to test this cardio a little bit.
(13:02):
I'm not worried at all about mine. And uh, you know,
I'll just continue to look for the finish the whole fight.
So that's that's my plan, that's all. And it's never
a rush thing. It's never something where I'm you know,
over pursuing that and that comes from years and years
of wrestling understanding how to compete for you know, knowing
that you have this much time in a match. But
(13:22):
I don't believe that he'll be able to last the
whole fight.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Jacob malcoun was able to successfully take him down. Did
you watch that?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
How much did you take from that?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
A lot? You know, I think that for me, film
studies huge. I do a ton of film study, always
watching my opponents and and watching guys that who I
respect and look up to and or think who I
think are doing things right. So to see my opponent
be taken down by a guy that's really not a
wrestler is definitely something that just shows me a hole
in his game. I think a lot of wrestlers they
(13:52):
forget that where they come from. They start just you know,
falling in love with striking boxing, you know, not working
on the wrestling. And so I'm sure he worked a
lot of this camp, but to me, that just says that,
however long he's been training in MMA, he's kind of
let that skill go maybe a little bit. And obviously
that's not the case with me. I'm still wrestling the
Penn State.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
That's what I was wondered, how much are you wrestling still?
A lot?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
My last workout was with Nick Lee, who's a World
Team member, multiple time national champion, and so I'm in
the wrestling room probably three or four times a week,
wrestling the best guys in the world. And yeah, you
know there's no no substitute for.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
That, no substitute for that. And those guys that want
to put a wrestling training camp together, if you go,
I'm gonna rest for twelve weeks to make sure I
can defend this guy's take down. Yeah, it's not happening.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
No, And also like I'm gonna punch you, right, yeah,
I think everybody knows that now after my last fight, Like,
I'm not trying to come in and call or tie
you and ankle pick you like I'm I'm gonna test
your chin and take you down at the same time.
So that's something that you know you can. You can
try to try to sprawl, try to work on your wizards,
all that stuff. It doesn't matter. It's really kind of
(14:56):
a waste of time.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Hey, it's okay, all right, big fight this week, and
it's gonna be fantastic. I've been won ask this one.
I've been waiting for it. Like so in the professional
wrestling world, right, it's a work, right, were you and
I working, Bo, You're not gonna do this. We're gonna
do this. We're gonna do this, And then sometimes we
work ourselves into a shoot. A shoot means it turns real. Okay,
(15:20):
the Jordan Burros date, did you work yourself into a shoot?
Like were you serious or were you kind of like
working the public and then it turned into like a
real thing.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Now I was one hundred percent serious, you know, for me,
I love I asked him the question. I asked him
the question, he chose the answer the way he chose
the answer, and and to me, the way I took
it was, this is Carter Stratci's moment, this is my brother,
this my teammates, my family. And one you're you're making
(15:52):
it about you and not him, and I get you answer.
I asked him the question already, but it was just
kind of a lead up to up to that point.
And two, I felt like, as a commentator, like I'm
not gonna judge anybody on on what they what they
think or how they're going to compete, But as a commentator,
I just felt like that was that was over the line.
(16:12):
And had it not been a friend of mine, you know,
I probably wouldn't say anything. But I just feel like
all these guys around me like I have their back,
and if nobody wants to say anything, you know, I'm
gonna be the guy that that steps up. And I
just didn't like it. I didn't appreciate it. I felt
like it was not very classy in that moment to
say that and double down on it too. But it
(16:33):
is what it is, you know. I feel like.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Carter obviously Carter took offense to it too, And that's
the thing for me too.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Like I said, if it was just a random guy whatever,
like it's not a big deal to me, But this is.
These guys are like my family. So anytime I feel
like disrespect coming at a family member of mine or
I feel like, you know, somebody's coming at them, like,
I'm gonna be the guy that like puts that to rest,
like no, like that's not how we're going to do things.
So yeah, I didn't like what he had to say,
and I made And.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Now you're the guy that knows how to fight, right,
so like you can help him in more ways than before,
because you know before, when you just get wrestled, it
really is different.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
It's different.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
So before I let you go, I got one question.
How in the world has Kill convinced these guys that
it's all just fun. It's not that fun, bro, wrestling
is not that they're all like Coach just says to
have fun. Like it's hard, it's like really hard, like,
but he's convinced you guys that it's just fun. How's
(17:29):
he done that?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I don't know that I could even sum that up.
I think that it's a combination of things. I think
that we get kids who have a genuine appreciation and
enjoyment for the sport.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
They seem to love wrestling.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
People they love wrestling. But then there's a lot of
guys that love wrestling and then get into college wrestling
and lose that love. And I think that what coach
does is just he creates an environment that we're not
down in the dumps. It's just very positive, very uplifting.
You know, if if he comes to you and says
(18:03):
that you're doing something wrong, it's because he wants to
help you and he makes that apparent and it's it's
to work and build right, Like we don't focus on
the negatives, like you know, guy might lose a match
and it's on to the next it's what can we
do better and how can we improve? So I think
that just that overall positivity really makes the environment actually fun.
(18:24):
You know outside of just like the sport, right, like
you're just somewhere that you want to be. That's why
I still go train there. Yeah, you know, obviously the
wrestling is pig but I have fun when I go
into practice and we're having a good time, right Like
how often that you hear people say that, But it's
genuinely fun for us, and I think that we just
structure it. The coach Kaler structures it a little differently,
and he makes it that it's not this heavy grind
(18:46):
of you know, walking out with my head down. It's
everybody's having a good time fun. A lot of the
work we do is like on our own, so it's
you know, you're you're up. It's up to you, like
how much you're gonna do things like that, and they're
they just kind of meet you where you're at, which
is unique in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I saw that in the Mess and Brin match when
he kind of messed up the score at the time
in Yeah, they didn't yell at him or anything, kind
of just walk him off to Matt, gave mahof told
him good job.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah that's crazy. Yeah, And that's just something that I
think has been consistent right, Like they're always just there
for you and they want to help you achieve your goals.
But it's kind of like I think, you know, when
you see a wrestling dad that wants it more than
their kid, like, it just ends up negative.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
It really does.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
But with coach kal like and I think it can
be the same with coaches. And I don't think he
wants it any more than us, Like he wants us
to achieve our goals as much as we want to
achieve it, right, So I think that it just kind
of all lines and works out, and like I said again,
it just it makes it more positive.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
On fighting, Like do you ever think that he'll come
and watch you compete?
Speaker 3 (19:44):
I would love to have him come, you know. Of
course it's tough with their schedule. They're always busy doing
their thing, Like we got Olympic trials next weekend, so
they're prepping all the guys for that. But I would
love to do a flight and have him come watch.
Even if I could do one at Penn State at
Bryce Jordan's and have him come, that would be good.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
He always his pack, Yeah, it.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Would be it would be great. I don't think he's
ever been to one so I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
One time John went bro and I was like a
kid again, Look, I won a world title, coach, Coach,
like I did it. I won a world title Like,
I'm like, grow the fuck up there, and they're like,
Jesus Christ, coach. It's so embarrassing, And I was so
when I was done, I was like, I'm the world
chimp and I'm like, pander into this dude with the belt.
Come on, guys, bo Nickel competes this weekend. You have
(20:27):
c three hundred on the main cards for all they
hate to stop step back because I don't know that
he's ever gonna be on a prelimb takes on Cody
Brundage at one hundred and eighty five pounds. Bow Nickel,
you are not afraid to call somebody's name, e do you?
And you're one of the only people that says Hamzat's name.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. So that's
to me. Uh, that's the fight to make. I think
everybody knows it. People talk. I talk a lot about reputation,
and you know, I'm trying to build my reputation. He's
a guy that's done a great job of building his
but uh, we're gonna.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Make that fight happen and then don't scare you at all.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
No, I'm not afraid of anybody, So I'm just ready
to compete. So if you're the best, that's who I
want to fight against.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
That boy, Bull Nickels something else, Man, Bull Nichols fighting
US three hundred this weekend. Tap into everything Bull's doing.
You got a YouTube channel, right YouTube, Go to Bow's
YouTube channel. Follow him on Instagram X formerly known this Twitter.
I just learned how to say that X formerly known
that Twitter. Yeah, yeah, that's that shit. Now that's what
you say. And everything that Bow Nichols doing, man, tap
(21:23):
into it. He's a phenomenal wrestler mixed martial artist now
and he's gonna fight this weekend on the biggest fight
card of all time. Till next time, guys like subscribe,
tell your friend to tell a friend that DC's got
a YouTube channel, and I'm checking in with guys like
Bow Nickel. Till next time, Peace,
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