Israel Adesanya should steer clear of American phenom Bo Nickal, claims Olympic gold medalist

Henry Cejudo says Israel Adesanya should steer clear of decorated college wrestler Bo Nickal after UFC 305 submission loss.

Israel Adesanya should steer clear of American phenom Bo Nickal, claims Olympic gold medalist

Henry Cejudo says Israel Adesanya should stay away from Bo Nickal (Source: IMAGO)

Israel Adesanya’s coach, peers, and even a handful of former rivals saw positives from his title fight this August. He lost to the champion, Dricus Du Plessis, via submission at the UFC 305 PPV in Australia. However, Izzy is in good shape and hopefully will rebound soon. Should he rebound against the interesting name Bo Nickal, though? Henry Cejudo says no.

The Olympic gold medalist Cejudo has heaped much praise on decorated college wrestler Bo Nickal. He is often considered the next wrestling great under the banner. At one point or another, Nickal will take a huge step up in the competition. Given that Adesanya proved susceptible to his first-ever submission defeat, Henry Cejudo has some advice for ‘The Last Stylebender.’ 

If, if...If Bo Nickal was to get a guy like Israel Adesanya now, it wouldn't be good for Israel, ...especially watching him get choked out, like Bo Nickal would do a number on him just stylistically...[that is] If they were to fight.
Henry Cejudo with Jake Noecker for an interview on ‘Home of Fight’ YT Channel/ ?: @HomeofFight-MMA
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This isn’t the first time ‘Triple C’ has sung his praises against Izzy. In the ‘The GOATCast’ with Henry Cejudo, combat veteran Demetrious Johnson said if Izzy can make sure to defend his guard, he can keep Nickal on his feet with kickboxing and guessing. However, Cejudo considered him a stylistic threat against the former middleweight champ.

Given that Izzy just had his taste of defeat on the ground at UFC 305, he thinks so yet again. After a year’s layoff, Adesanya proved tempered. The momentum was swinging Adesanya’s way in R4 before Du Plessis tagged him and jumped on a big crank. The decorated college wrestler could surely bring such variability and jump his back. However, Izzy believes that Nickal is the victim of his own hype.

Israel Adesanya responded to Bo Nickal’s challenge of outwrestling him

Nickal, whose UFC debut was pushed back to 2023, once said Israel Adesanya would not overcome his takedowns. The college wrestling champion believed he could take on Adesanya even before his debut. Word of mouth on such a pairing was also doing the rounds when the Kiwi fighter was still the middleweight champ.

Israel Adesanya; Bo Nickal
Israel Adesanya; Bo Nickal (Source: boxemag.com/usagym.org)

Adesanya was to return to the cage to defend his strap against kickboxing rival Alex Pereira. This would not go so much in his way. However, he did win the undisputed gold back at UFC 287 in quite a highlight reel. During their first go, Bo Nickal would later heavily critique their minimal clinch and exchanges. While respecting Nickal’s opinion, Adesanya reminded him that Nickal’s grappling is exploitable in the cage.

Okay… Everyone has an opinion, so he has a right to his opinion, … I think everyone is just – I could say whatever I want to say about him as well. I actually gave him props like ‘He’s doing what he’s doing’. But, I’d like to see more…He’s only just got here, and I know he’s a decorated wrestler but this is not wrestling, this is MMA. There’s ways to exploit wrestlers in MMA.
Israel Adesanya to MMA columnist Luke Thomas for ‘Morning Combat’ (@MorningKombat) Pre-fight Interviews; H/T: BJPenn.com
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Nickal bagged a round two submission against Cody Brundage in April at the milestone UFC 300 pay-per-view (PPV) card. However, his wrestling skills had caused him to handicap his hope of getting the job done sooner, and the wrestler booed himself when he couldn’t. Nonetheless, after UFC 305, Izzy vs. Nickal remains quite a stylistic matchup if it should ever happen.

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