Blue belts across the land can now live in fear, as wrestling champion Bo Nickal recently earned his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This came one week after he claimed that he was “The deadliest white belt on the planet” whilst posing in the gi. It turns out that Nickal has been training BJJ sporadically for a few years – but obviously his main interest remains with wrestling, where he has won the US National Championships, Big 10, and Division 1 Championships multiple times.
In fact, Nickal had previously fought Gordon Ryan in a hybrid grappling match at Third Coast Grappling back in 2019. He managed to land a suplex on Gordon Ryan before being submitted by a triangle. Afterwards, he famously stated that he could beat Gordon Ryan after just 6 months of training BJJ. Interestingly, it seems that he’s trained more than 6 months since then – and his ears show you that this man is a serious grappler.
Whilst his skills on the mat may have been above white belt for some time, it’s still nice to see him get promoted and train in the gi. He joins a list of wrestlers that have recently transitioned into BJJ with the likes of Pat Downey previously competing in BJJ as well.
