In October, Bo Nickal, who made his pro-MMA debut two years ago, won a unanimous decision over Paul Craig, a veteran who has been in the UFC alone for the past eight years. This, at least on paper, is quite an achievement. After all, 7-0 Nickal is an infant in MMA terms and was taking on a 17-9 warrior who has been fighting professionally since Nickal was in high school. But the fans, who booed him, and Dana White, who criticized his UFC 309 win didn’t see it as much of an achievement. Why?

Well partly because of the hype surrounding the three-time NCAA wrestling champ. The other part is the bizarre nature of the fight. After all, Nickal, despite his wrestling plaudits, refused to take the Scottish veteran down, choosing instead to engage in an amateurish all-striking affair with Craig. Nickal’s decision, of course, has many scratching their heads. After all, why wouldn’t you use your strongest suit in a fight? Well, Nickal’s fellow middleweight Caio Borralho has a theory.

“I think he’s still like he knew that Paul Craig doesn’t have hands to hurt him, just had the kicks, that’s all the Paul Craig has, and the jiu-jitsu. So that was a fight that he could do on standing because he was going to be comfortable in that position,” the Brazilian told the ‘Overdogs Podcast’ in a recent interview.

Indeed, Craig may not be a wrestler of Nickal’s caliber but is quite good at BJJ. And Borralho feels that the American just didn’t want to take the fight where Craig would have felt the most comfortable. Instead, Nickal played it safe and lost stock with the fans and the UFC. In fact, Borralho was sure that had Nickal been fighting a striker who was any good, he would have immediately gone for the takedown since that would have been the safest choice in that case.

“But if he gets a guy that likes to box and put hands on you, try to knock you out, I bet that he’s going to shoot for the takedown,” he added. This is why the Brazilian believed that the undefeated middleweight is “not ready for the highest level yet.” But all of this, Borralho felt, was just a symptom of a wider problem that arose because Nickal was “still learning how to manage his fears.”

Caio Borralho thinks Bo Nickal needs to be fearless

Borralho feels that Bo Nickal is just afraid of losing, which makes him play it safe, pleasing no one even if he wins. “This guy has a great background in wrestling and he was one of the best wrestling athletes over there, you know. But I think when it comes to mixing up everything and going into MMA where you get punched in the face and can get kicked in the face and kneed on your face and all that, I think he’s still learning how to manage his fears,” the #6 ranked middleweight opined.

Of course, Nickal has the added pressure of being undefeated and remaining undefeated. And he did seem reluctant to engage with Craig, even on the feet. The Penn State alum seemed happy to do the bare minimum to win the round and not try to make something even resembling a knockout happen. And his striking wasn’t anything special either.

Great fighters play to their strengths. Alex Pereira did not try to take down Khalil Rountree Jr., who is a pure and extremely dangerous striker, in their UFC 307 LHW title clash. No, ‘Poatan’ fought according to his strength of striking even though ‘War Horse’ has literally no ground game.

Admittedly in the first couple of rounds, Pereira did seemingly struggle with Rountree’s relentless pressure but prevailed in the end because he was confident in his abilities. It is difficult to imagine Craig and Nickal struggling on the ground and the veteran getting the better of the NCAA champion. But so fearful did Nickal seem of giving Craig a chance that he didn’t even try to use the most dangerous aspect of his game. What do you think about Caio Borralho’s take on Bo Nickal’s underwhelming UFC 309 performance?