Outside Source
Bo Nickal’s head coach at American Top Team, Mike Thomas Brown, believes a lack of experience led to his pupil’s first professional mixed martial arts loss.
Nickal (7-1) faced a massive step up in competition when he took on Reinier de Ridder in the UFC Des Moines co-main event. While Nickal was a sizeable favorite going in, de Ridder scored a massive upset with knees to the body in the second round. This ended Nickal’s seven-fight winning streak, which included six finishes.
Brown revealed that they always had concerns going up against elite competition like De Ridder, a former two-division One Championship king. However, the renowned ATT coach trusted the skillset of Nickal, a former three-time NCAA Division 1 ace. Brown admits that while Nickal is a gifted athlete, his lack of experience showed against the Dutch veteran. Brown is confident that Nickal will only bounce back stronger from his first loss.
“Bo has all the attributes that you want if your goal is to become a world champion in mixed martial arts… But the one thing Bo doesn’t have is live fighting cage time and for this there is no substitution,” Brown wrote on Instagram. “MMA fight experience is crucial and actual time in the cage is extremely important. As a team we had our concerns about moving so fast and we realize the dangers of fighting such high-level opponents so early, but Bo is a unique athlete and the UFC has him on a fast track. This past weekend Bo’s lack of experience showed, his wrestling and athleticism wasn’t enough to overcome what was in front of him. Reinier de Ridder now 20-2 was a multi-time 2 division world champion in OneFC, a very reputable organization. Props to him for coming with a strong game plan and executing what was needed. This is the fight game and it’s cliche but this is where we learn. This is where we make changes and where we make the biggest gains. I’m confident that this is going to fuel Bo and it will help him direct his focus to another level. To all the critics dog piling, remember Bo is nothing more than a man in an arena trying to support himself and his family.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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