Donald Trump recalls meeting Bo Nickal prior to UFC career
Former president Donald Trump recalled meeting rising UFC star Bo Nickal before the former Penn State wrestler transitioned to MMA.
Nickal was a three-time NCAA wrestling champion for the Nittany Lions and got to visit the White House in 2019 following his final collegiate season. He along with Penn State teammates and other national champions from 2019 were brought in by Jim Jordan, the current Chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
Trump joined UFC Unfiltered with Jim Norton and Matt Serra to discuss Nickal.
“You know you have somebody fighting Bo Nickal tonight,” Trump said prior to UFC 290. “So he was at the White House and he was with Jim Jordan … the Congressman, was a great wrestler. He was an All-American wrestler, I guess he was the NCAA champion a number of times, but a great wrestler … His son’s an All-American wrestler.
“You didn’t know that about the great Jim Jordan? He brought all of the championship wrestlers in the divisions to the White House. And he said (Nickal) is going to be a UFC fighter and that guy’s going to do great … (he said that) … Yeah, he’s doing well.”
To be exact, Jordan was a two-time NCAA wrestling champion at Wisconsin at 134 pounds (1985 and ’86) and his son Isaac was a four-time All-American with the Badgers, including finishing second in 2016, with his lone loss coming in the finals against Oklahoma State’s Alex Dieringer, a three-time champion.
As Trump acknowledged, Nickal is doing very well. He’s now 5-0 in his MMA career with a 2-0 record in the UFC.
Nickal made no bones about his aspirations as a mixed-martial artist, so maybe middleweight contender Dricus du Plessis is part of that. For a guy who barely lost in college and won three national titles at Penn State, UFC gold could very well be in his future. Perhaps Trump will be in attendance for Nickal’s next fight.
Nickal previously called out middleweight champions Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira for their lack of grappling skills.
At that time, Pereira TKO’d Adesanya to claim the belt. Adesanya would get it back in April.
“That’s a relatively, I would say – I’m not going to say ‘easy’ fight, because he’s dangerous,” Nickal said of Pereira in February. “But as far styles go, that’s a great matchup for me. I’ve watched their fight a couple times, and the grappling (is where I’d win). The striking exchanges are super impressive – that goes without saying. They’re absolutely elite strikers. But when they get ahold of each other, it’s just almost, like, funny.”
Former president Trump is a long-time UFC fan and is clearly a big one of Nickal so far. Nickal is expected to fight by the end of the year if he happens to book one more fight in 2023.