Bo Nickal has reaffirmed his lack of regret over publicly criticizing Jordan Burroughs for comments made about a teammate, stating he received a lot of support from the wrestling community and that the issue is with Burroughs, not him.
Bo Nickal? He’s not losing sleep over Jordan Burroughs. Not one bit.
You see, these two wrestling titans have been at each other’s throats for a while now. It all started when Nickal called out Burroughs, labeling him as “a freaking fraud”. Why? Well, it’s all down to some comments Burroughs made during the 2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships broadcast.
Burroughs, sitting pretty in the ESPN commentary booth, had a chat with UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier. He said something about targeting the injured leg of Penn State’s Carter Starocci if they were to meet in the Olympic wrestling trials. That didn’t sit well with Nickal.
Nickal, a three-time NCAA champ at Penn State, didn’t hold back. He blasted Burroughs for his remarks, sparking a very public spat with the wrestling legend. Fast forward a few weeks, fresh off his UFC 300 win over Cody Brundage, Nickal’s stance hasn’t changed. He’s got no regrets about how he handled the Burroughs situation.
“I’m good with everybody,” Nickal said on The MMA Hour. But when it comes to his teammates and close friends, he’s not afraid to speak his mind. “And it’s him with the problem, so he can’t really do anything to me at the end of the day.”
During the UFC 300 fight week, Nickal shared something unexpected. He was surprised by the reaction his comments got from the wider wrestling community. Burroughs is a big deal in American wrestling, one of the most decorated wrestlers of his time. So, Nickal expected some backlash for his criticism of the Olympic gold medalist. But, that didn’t happen.
Instead, Nickal got “a lot of support” from his fellow wrestlers and people within the community. He said, “everybody is kind of on the same page as me.”
He even had a chance to talk about it with Cormier. “We talked about it briefly,” Nickal recalled. Cormier pointed out that he was the one who asked the question, to which Nickal replied, “Well, he’s the one that answered it.”
Nickal’s take? If you’re going to answer a question like a big boy, then you’ve got to take the heat too. “So I didn’t like it. People have their opinion about it and he has his opinion about it.”
For Nickal, it’s about loyalty. If you’re coming at a teammate, a brother, he’s going to step up and say something. “I don’t appreciate that, so that’s really all it came down to at the end. It’s not personal. Had it been any other guy in his position that would’ve said something about my teammate, I would have done the same thing.”