Bo Nickal has received a flood of criticism despite picking up the biggest win of his career thus far at UFC 309 this past Saturday.
Widely regarded as a future champion in the UFC, Bo Nickal took one more step toward the middleweight rankings this past Saturday at UFC 309 when he picked up a win over Paul Craig.
However, the 28-year-old has received a lot of criticism regarding his performance and at one point, he was even getting relentlessly booed by the fans in attendance at Madison Square Garden.
Bo Nickal hits back at ‘idiot drunk fans’ for booing him at UFC 309
With his UFC career having gone effortlessly up until this point, the decorated college wrestler hasn’t received much criticism up until this point.
UFC CEO Dana White admitted following Nickal’s performance that the 28-year-old has things he needs to work on. “We’ve had these discussions with Bo, Bo needs work,” the UFC boss said in the post-fight press conference.
Despite that, reacting to his performance, Nickal has admitted that he is ‘super happy’ with how he performed and has hit back at the fans who booed him.
“I’m super happy with my performance, I feel like that was definitely just a really valuable experience for me and my development and I think the way that I won was a pretty big boost to my confidence,” Nickal said on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“It was funny to hear the chants, it almost just made me laugh because the crowd and the people that are doing that, I’ll explain it this way. When you get disrespected by people who in my opinion have no idea what they’re talking about, it’s just almost a compliment.
“I controlled the fight, I did everything I needed to do, and if I have a bunch of idiot drunk fans that they don’t like the way it’s going, I think that’s probably a good thing,” the undefeated contender continued.
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Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett reacts to Bo Nickal criticism
Someone who has found himself in a very similar position to Nickal, is lightweight contender, Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett.
Pimblett came into the UFC with high hopes due to his success on the regional scene with Cage Warriors, and following a few impressive performances under the UFC banner, his performances became more scrutinized.
The Brit received similar criticism from the UFC fanbase following his 2022 win over Jared Gordon and has commented on the ‘fickle’ fans slamming Nickal.
“It’s crazy that they’re singing ‘overrated’, like because he’s fighting someone very experienced. Don’t know why they’re shouting ‘overrated’, like,” Pimblett said in a video on his YouTube channel.
“As I’ve said plenty of times on our channel, MMA fans are very fickle, I’ve felt it before myself, one second they love you, then they hate you. Then they love you again, then they hate you again. Bo will get used to it,” he added.
