Bo Nickal appears to be moving away from a humble response towards critics following his first professional loss.
Nickal suffered a knockout defeat via a knee to the body against Reinier de Ridder in the co-main event of UFC Des Moines. After the fight, Nickal reflected on the performance, acknowledging he wasn`t fully prepared for everything Reinier de Ridder presented. Initially, he offered a measured response to his detractors during an interview on The Ariel Helwani Show, suggesting he was “OK with it” and would “pray for those people.”
However, in a video later removed from his YouTube channel, Nickal adopted a starkly different and much more aggressive tone when addressing his critics.
Speaking in the now-deleted video, Nickal stated, “It’s interesting, of course… there’s a lot of positive and a lot of negative. All the negative, to me, I look at that and all I say is like, suck my d*ck.”
He continued with a defiant message to those who doubted him: “At the end of the day, say what you want. But when I get back on top, and when I’m the freaking champion of the world, you all will come crawling back. They always do. They always do, and I will spit right in your face.”
Prior to this defeat, Nickal had built an undefeated professional record of 7-0, which included a 4-0 start to his career in the UFC. His previous octagon appearance was a unanimous decision victory over Paul Craig at UFC 309.
Looking ahead, Nickal vowed to remember every negative comment made by fans or media members, claiming he possesses an “elephant`s memory.” He explicitly stated his intention to reject interview requests from past critics and even suggested he would retaliate physically.
“As soon as you crawl back and are like, ‘Bo, come give me an interview,’ where were you?,” Nickal remarked, adding, “And guess what? I’m going to say, ‘Hey, come over here, loogie right between the eyes.’ That’s how I’ll treat you guys.”
