Bo Nickal off UFC 282 vs. Jamie Pickett; promotion targeting new debut plans

Bo Nickal won’t make his UFC debut in 2022.

One of the hottest prospects in MMA history, Nickal (3-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) is out of the UFC 282 bout vs. Jamie Pickett (12-8 MMA, 2-4 UFC) that was scheduled for Dec. 12 in Las Vegas, people with knowledge of the matchup recently told MMA Junkie.

One person said Nickal withdrew due to an injury and that the promotion now is targeting March 4, an event expected to be UFC 285.

Nickal, 28, trucked CFFC champion Donovan Beard en route to a 52-second, UFC contract-earning submission at Dana White’s Contender Series in September. The win moved him to 3-0 in his pro MMA career with three quick first-round finishes. He has yet to absorb a strike.

Pickett enters the fight on a two-fight skid. Following a two-fight winning streak with victories over Laureano Staropoli and Joseph Holmes, Pickett was finished in back-to-back fights against Kyle Daukaus and Denis Tiuliulin.

Spotlighted long before his MMA career kicked off, Nickal was a three-time Division-I national wrestling champion and three-time Big Ten conference champion for Penn State. He won a national championship and an under-23 world championship, both in 2019 in the 92kg (202.8-pound) weight class. He finished college with a 120-3 record, including a combined 61-0 record in his junior and senior years.

In 2019, Nickal earned the 2019 Dan Hodge Trophy, an accolade awarded to the nation’s best wrestler. He also twice won the Schalles Award, an honor given to the nation’s best pinner. In addition, in 2019 he was named Big Ten Athlete of the Year. Nickal is a blue belt in jiu-jitsu and trains at American Top Team in South Florida.