Bo Nickal says Gable Steveson promised to knock him out during a confrontation at Real American Freestyle’s Cleveland event. Nickal’s answer was blunt. He conceded Steveson might beat him in a wrestling match but said he would win easily in a fight.
Ariel Helwani shared Nickal’s account on X on Monday. Nickal said he walked straight up to Steveson and asked, “Bro, what’s your problem? Why are you talking crazy about me?”
It escalated from there. Nickal said the moment has stuck with him vividly, and the reason is Steveson’s threat: “I’ll knock you out.”
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Nickal’s reply is the part worth framing. He told Steveson, “You absolutely won’t knock me out. I don’t know if I’d beat you in a wrestling match, but I would destroy you in a fight.”
He followed it with a scouting report. By his account, he told Steveson, “You have no defense.” He added that Steveson wasn’t experienced enough to understand how to get away from strikes.
Nickal didn’t say exactly when Steveson was knocked out or by whom, and I’m not going to fill in that blank for him. The only timeline he gave was a loose one: “Then boom, however many weeks later, Gable got knocked out.”
MiddleEasy reported that Nickal also described how he reacted to that knockout. In the same conversation, he turned down a suggestion from Jon Jones. The outlet’s summary doesn’t say what Jones suggested, so I won’t guess.
Where Nickal stands
Nickal’s last fight was a stoppage of Kyle Daukaus this past summer at UFC Freedom 250, the event held at the White House. Daukaus fought Marc-Andre Barriault on Saturday’s UFC Edmonton main card, his first appearance since that loss.
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Nickal’s next assignment has moved. He was booked against Joe Pyfer at UFC 335 in December. Last Friday, Nickal announced that the middleweight fight is off that card and will instead headline a UFC Cleveland event in February 2027. Spinnin Backfist flagged the change, and Pyfer has already responded publicly.
The timing matters at 185 pounds. Champion Sean Strickland is boycotting the UFC over pay, and Bloody Elbow reported that Strickland has said he’ll vacate the belt and move up to 205 if he can’t agree to a new deal. Pyfer is one of several contenders who could be a single win from a title shot. That makes the February fight against Nickal a real ranking fight, with consequences beyond who wins.
Steveson’s name also came up over the weekend for a different reason. Some fans mocked Joaquin Buckley’s silent post-weigh-in interview before UFC Edmonton, calling him a clown trying to copy Steveson or Jones.
My take
The honest line in Nickal’s story is the concession. A three-time NCAA champion admitting he might lose to Steveson on the mat tells you he understands how big the gap is between wrestling credentials and fighting experience. Elite wrestlers with no striking defense tend to stand with their chin up and their hands low, trusting that their shot will bail them out. Experienced strikers hunt exactly that. Steveson apparently found out the hard way, and Nickal gets to say he called it. The bigger test is Pyfer, who hits hard enough to make Nickal’s own defense the topic. February in Cleveland will show us whether it holds up.
