In January, the blue prospect Payton Talbott walked as a favorite from 10 to 1 against Raoni Barcelos at the UFC 311, then was dominated for three laps. It hurts, but not as bad as the kicks he received on social networks after the loss. Playing, he later posted that he condamed himself at Dagestan to learn to fight.
Last week, Carlos Prates suffered something similar. He had 5-0 at the UFC with five ko. There was a great reason why the battles were celebrated as a four -eyed marauders' gang, and yet he was smoked by Ian Garry in the Kansas City barbecue capital. Garry even pretended to dab a cigarette after raising his hand.
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Maybe this has always been the case, but in 2025, this is definitely one thing – the UFC came for the ultimate fraud check. There is a joy that is accompanied by looking at a conscientiously excited perspective to make him hand over the ass, in particular those who love the altar of chaos.
It happened again on Saturday evening at the UFC fighting evening to monks, Iowa.
This time, it was the former undefeated college wrestler Bo Nickal who obtained the treatment. Nickal was a favorite -300 to beat the Dutchman Reinier de Ridder, and therefore a line of chalk in the heads. As a triple national champion of Penn State, Nickal was imagined in fights with names such as Khamzat Chimaev since the moment he emerged from the Series Contender, which, of course, could not help rubbing certain people in the wrong direction.
Thus, when he lost against Ridder, the refrain of social media swollen. Words like “exposed” were launched by those who knewWho is everyone in the habit of predicting the results retrospectively. A nasty knee to the body of Ridder did the trick, but it was only the final sequence. Before that, from Ridder showed that he would not take the dictation in the cage of anyone, even a brass wrestler with decades of Pedigree.
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De Ridder was not about to be the victim of intimidation and actually turned the tables on Nickal. He was waiting inside Bo with his knees of the body. It was a revelation. It is this kind of thing that gives the UFC its juice, this mark of truth. The idea that there is always an opponent having just torn this zero. Understanding that beaten media is carefully constructed just so that it can be implemented on live television.
And let's face it, the media is traditionally the name of the combat game, because the generation of public interest turns well into American dollars. This is where BO was. Directly on the cuspid. He was the name of marquee in the cornfield because he looked inevitable.
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He was a question of him at the head of his next fight at the Bryce Jordan Center in Happy Valley, made to measure for an entirely American return. Nickal had finished the first five opponents he had faced with the UFC and had easily managed Paul Craig in his last fight, even if Craig survived to hear the dashboards.
The defeat of Nickal against Ridder is the first of his professional career and came in another match in which Nickal was the big favorite. (Images Reese Strickland-Imagn)
(Imagn Images via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
Have his opponents been handpicked? You're right, they were! No one was trying to throw Paddy Pimbett to the wolves and look at where he is now, on the verge of the pretender. Which is another way of saying that Paddy is always “ripe for the exhibition”, in a way to think.
No, in 2025, watching media threshing became delicacy on Saturday evening. When Umar Nurmagomedov fell against Merab Dvalishvili, the middle fingers could not get out of their fists in phase fairly quickly.
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It may be an eternal need to see people establish each other. Nickal himself helped to fuel things by saying that even as a favorite -1600 in his first fights, it was value, which is the right state of mind for a guy who only knows how to win. Did he say he could hang with Chimaev? He did it, he did it. But to see him get managed as he did on Saturday night, you might think that his whole career was nothing more than a card house.
“If the stand-up and grappling are superior, the wrestling pedigree simply allows his opponent to decide where they will lose,” said Al Iaquinta thereafter. A taking fairly equal to Keel, even if it was not the case when he fought Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Another catch? Bo Nickal Fraud checked, in all the ceilings.
Maybe yes. It would be necessary to think that as a long -standing competitor, Nickal will use the loss as motivation to come back stronger. The losses are not well with the fighters who have spent their whole lives to keep control. Bo is the last to take an L on his way to great things, and he will not be the last. The joy that follows?
Well, let's just say that the coming has never been so exposed.
