UFC prospect Bo Nickal made an impressive debut at UFC 285, beating Jamie Pickett in the first round via an arm triangle choke. Although his super-fast finish saw him get commended by fans, a section of the MMA community didn’t seem too impressed with his performance that night. Among them was former double champ Henry Cejudo, who despite having a lot of faith in the 27-year-old, pointed out certain weaknesses in Nickal’s arsenal.

Although the young gun seemed to have taken the criticism thrown at him in his stride, it appears that he did take one particular comment on him quite seriously. Nickal, responding to the commentary team of Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier‘s remarks on his submission attempt during the fight against Pickett, shared a breakdown clip in an attempt to prove his mastery of the art of grappling.

Rogan and Cormier had particularly questioned his arm triangle attempt that night, which appeared to be unlike the classical arm triangle choke that BJJ freaks would be well aware of.

Bo Nickal shares clip of exact variation of arm triangle submission that was criticized by Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier

As Nickal successfully wrapped his arm around Pickett’s neck during the second minute of the first round, he appeared to bide his time as he made sure that the choke was tight enough. Pointing out that he was not yet in a position to finish, Cormier remarked that the fighter won’t be able to submit Pickett if he stayed in the same spot.

Interestingly, Pickett was attempting to enforce the choke without passing into a stronger position, as he kept himself in a half-guard type scenario.

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The commentary team of Rogan and DC were quite perplexed at the situation, as they wondered why he wasn’t passing.

“Nickal’s doing this wrong though. Nickal’s gotta get his hips off to the side and drop his chest to the mat. This is not an ideal finish.” claimed Cormier.

Joe Rogan, too, responded in agreement. “It’s not perfect…”.

Following this, questions were also raised by Cejudo about his abilities as an elite fighter. Pointing out the uncertainty involved with that submission attempt, the former Olympian wondered what would have happened if Nickal failed to get the choke.

“I was curious to see if he didn’t get the arm triangle. How was it that he was going to come back in that second round, because there’s a lot of squeezing, there’s a lot of blood, that you’re constricting through you trying to submit somebody,” said Cejudo.

All the criticisms thrown at him clearly seemed to have unsettled Nickal, at least a little. Rebutting those claims made by the veterans, he shared a clip of an arm triangle breakdown shared by another BJJ page. This particular technique, he claimed, was the reason he didn’t choose to pass into a better position.

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Ultimately, the move seems like an extremely well thought approach from the young middleweight. Maybe he didn’t wish to lose a strong position during the fight and chose to take his time as he inched closer to victory.

Nickal beat Jamie Pickett at UFC 285, securing his first UFC victory

For the former wrestling champ, this win against Pickett, despite being controversial, got him to a great start in the promotion. Coming in as an undefeated prospect, Nickal walked out as a much more experienced fighter, despite having taken only a few minutes to secure his win.

Moving up to four wins in his career, the 27-year-old will now be expected to take on a bigger challenge as he strives to achieve his promise of winning UFC gold.

What did you think of his UFC debut? Will Bo Nickal live up to the hype? Let us know in the comment section below.

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