Bo Could Beat Izzy

[BoxerMaurits]

Damn @DUNKS called it in the PBP last night

Can I start the “Bo Nickal would beat Izzy and become UFC MW champ because Izzy is a scrub”usual logical Sherdogger thread already?

 

[STAY GOLD]

Damn @DUNKS called it in the PBP last night

Tells you how predictable some Sherdoggers are.

 

[kalabula]

I would legitimately love to see it. It’s a throw back to ufc 1. What style can defeat the others. But it’s not a terrible argument. Can a super dominant wrestler with little MMA experience beat a world class ufc champion who admittedly has a hole in his game, which is exactly what his opponent excels at?

 

[Cowboy Kurt Angle]

 

[mkt]

To be fair though, it wasn't the wrestling aspect that failed Ruth. (and he still had a good career in MMA).
Ruth showed that you can still go far with seemingly a weak chin and shoddy submission defense.
Within 2 years of his first pro fight, Ruth was in a Bellator WW GP
If Nickal has more chin/cardio, there are certain top fighters he could be a problem for.

Yeah, it all depends on the fighter. We've seen the likes of Cormier and Couture win multiple UFC titles and do very well (despite starting MMA in their early 30s). And we've seen wrestling wizards who flopped. It depends on their chins and ability to train and adapt to MMA. You won't know until they start fighting and face good opponents.

 

[mkt]

I would legitimately love to see it. It’s a throw back to ufc 1. What style can defeat the others. But it’s not a terrible argument. Can a super dominant wrestler with little MMA experience beat a world class ufc champion who admittedly has a hole in his game, which is exactly what his opponent excels at?

Well, not really, because UFC 1 was a true test of styles that never competed against each other. Except Royce, whose family had been doing those kind of fights for 70 years...but I digress. Izzy now has a lot of experience in tailoring his striking style to MMA and learning other aspects. Bo is just getting started. If Bo fought a kickboxer with 2 MMA fights, it would be the scenario you're talking about.

Remember, Chael had years of experience when he beat Anderson for 23 minutes of their fight. Weidman had a good bit of experience as well. If you're a kickboxer, karateka, wrestler, BJJ guy, judoka, etc., it takes a good while to modify you're style for MMA and cross-train enough in other styles to be really effective.

 

[JKS]

I can understand why you wouldn't agree he could beat Izzy but adding in "he would lose to anyone in the top fifteen" seems silly. To say that confidently you would have to have seen some sort of deficiency in his game and with only two fights to look at and those two fights being one sided flawless victories there's no way you've seen a deficiency the rest of the MMA world hasn't. Middleweight is at a pretty low point talent wise and I would bet Bo could handle the likes of Kelvin or Du Plessis even at this stage of his career. He's not just another NCAA stud who spams big right hands. He's an elite level athlete, a dynamic scrambler, a dangerous submission artist and is taking a Henry Cejudo like approach to boxing. He's a fucking problem.

He would get beaten by anyone in the top 15. I don't think you quite understand how this sport works. Just cause the guy has strong background in wrestling, doesn't mean he's coming into mma and will start beating top 15 fighters. It takes time to develop a mma game to beat fighters of that level. Fight experience takes time vs fighters of a lower level. Bo has a great base, but needs more experience vs guys his level and fighters that are unranked. We've seen guys that have a strong background like him start beating ranked opponents, but that's about 8-9 fights in and that takes 2-3 years.

The thought of him beating Izzy right now is among the dumbest things I've heard.

MW by no means is a low point. If you look at the 10-15 fighters, it's actually pretty strong. Muniz is very dangerous and would sub him inside one round, Gastelum is a high level fighter and would easily beat Bo, Imanov is a dangerous guy coming of two very solid wins, Tavares is very experienced. And the weakest guy you mentioned in Du Plessis who's by no means a slouch, the man was beating much better fighters than Bo in KSW 4 years ago. He would lose to all of them.

 

[JKS]

I would legitimately love to see it. It’s a throw back to ufc 1. What style can defeat the others. But it’s not a terrible argument. Can a super dominant wrestler with little MMA experience beat a world class ufc champion who admittedly has a hole in his game, which is exactly what his opponent excels at?

The only thing is that, that UFC champion doesn't actually have a hole in his game. Izzy has shown to be a very good at defending TDs and keeping the fight standing. Bo would get obliterated and it wouldn't even be a fight.

 

[brackis1]

I would legitimately love to see it. It’s a throw back to ufc 1. What style can defeat the others. But it’s not a terrible argument. Can a super dominant wrestler with little MMA experience beat a world class ufc champion who admittedly has a hole in his game, which is exactly what his opponent excels at?

This.
It's not a "Bo Nickal beats everyone in the Top15" thread.

 

[Fact Checker]

Embarrassing post

Lol at comparing a mediocre NAIA level wrestler like Brunson to D1 Royalty in Bo Nickal… it’s like comparing Neymar to an MLS player, there’s levels to this.

 

[Fact Checker]

The only thing is that, that UFC champion doesn't actually have a hole in his game. Izzy has shown to be a very good at defending TDs and keeping the fight standing. Bo would get obliterated and it wouldn't even be a fight.

I like Izzy but I’m also a huge wrestling fan… who has Izzy been forced to defend takedowns from? An Italian, an Aussie, and NAIA Brunson? Those are bottom of the barrel wrestlers in the grand scheme of things.

Bo still might be wet behind the ears but the raw potential and wrestling credentials that he brings is something that the MW division hasn’t had in years.

I think he might give Iz a tough fight right now, I wouldn’t pick him but I definitely wouldn’t write him off.

 

[JKS]

I like Izzy but I’m also a huge wrestling fan… who has Izzy been forced to defend takedowns from? An Italian, an Aussie, and NAIA Brunson? Those are bottom of the barrel wrestlers in the grand scheme of things.

Bo still might be wet behind the ears but the raw potential and wrestling credentials that he brings is something that the MW division hasn’t had in years.

I think he might give Iz a tough fight right now, I wouldn’t pick him but I definitely wouldn’t write him off.

Yeah, and those guys are more proven in MMA as wrestlers than Bo is. So listing their inferior wrestling credentials doesn't say much. GSP had zero college wrestling and beat everyone and some great wrestlers. Ed Ruth is among the most accomplished and he's getting spanked in MMA, look at his last two fights. And that was 4 years into his mma career.

Bo has potential but needs more experience. And depending on how he adapts and develops, he could be beating top 15 guys before his 10th fight, Weidman did it.

But right now talk of a Izzy fight is ridiculous. He would get humiliated and it wouldn't even be close. Beyond just the actual fight itself, there is so much more to fighting a guy like Izzy at that level.

 

[do a moniker]

Bo Nickal could beat Izzy right now. Convince me that he couldn’t! The dudes wrestling pedigree speaks for itself, he’s been training at ATT for years, his wrestling style translates to MMA so well, and his speed and explosiveness is next level.

I truly believe he could beat Izzy today. That’s scary, as he is 2-0 and will only get better.

Bo may become the biggest phenom of this generation of fighters.

On first glance I thought this was ridiculous. But Bo’s wrestling is so strong. His transition last night reminded me of khabib taking down Dustin and Justin. Even if you know it’s coming it’s nearly impossible to stop. It would definitely force Izzy to open up and fire long range strikes to
Keep him at bay. But he may be so far superior to Bo in striking at this point that he might be able to. But it’s actually not a terrible thread

 

[do a moniker]

You are getting wayyyyy ahead of yourself.

Maybe in time, but there have been wrestlers with a better pedigree than Bo who have transitioned to MMA, but were not successful. Ed Ruth is one of the greatest college wrestlers of all time, and while good, he wasn't in the top 50 fighters in his weight class.

Kos and Randleman were also multiple time national champions, but fell short of winning a title in MMA (and yes, I know Randleman won the HW title, but he never defended, and it was against very light competition).

Let's see what Bo does in his next few fights... then maybe we can discuss how he would do in the UFC.

Ruth may be the only wrestler of similar pedigree. Maybe pico too. But at best they are equivalent to Bo. I hate Bo. But gotta give credit where credit is due. That guy was insane in college. And made it to finals x being severely undersized. Pico made the equivalent of finals X, losing to a guy who had the Olympics of his life to medal. Bo lost
To a multiple time world champ and a top 5 p4p wrestler in the world currently.

 

[do a moniker]

I can understand why you wouldn't agree he could beat Izzy but adding in "he would lose to anyone in the top fifteen" seems silly. To say that confidently you would have to have seen some sort of deficiency in his game and with only two fights to look at and those two fights being one sided flawless victories there's no way you've seen a deficiency the rest of the MMA world hasn't. Middleweight is at a pretty low point talent wise and I would bet Bo could handle the likes of Kelvin or Du Plessis even at this stage of his career. He's not just another NCAA stud who spams big right hands. He's an elite level athlete, a dynamic scrambler, a dangerous submission artist and is taking a Henry Cejudo like approach to boxing. He's a fucking problem.

This is spot on. Def slow down the hype train. But as of now, he’s doing everything the right way, and with the limited data we have, looks to be a real star in the making

 

[PaddyO'malley]

Lol Izzy's feint game would have Bo frozen like Elsa at this stage in his career.

I hope they give him time to develop though. Would hate to see him collect blemishes on his record because he was pushed too quickly.

He'll take Izzy on a one-way trip to suplex city soon enough, and it will be glorious.

 

[gaffbyknees2]

Lol Izzy's feint game would have Bo frozen like Elsa at this stage in his career.

I hope they give him time to develop though. Would hate to see him collect blemishes on his record because he was pushed too quickly.

He'll take Izzy on a one-way trip to suplex city soon enough, and it will be glorious.

Please enough with that cringe line lol even using it sarcastically is so bad lol

 

[Fact Checker]

Yeah, and those guys are more proven in MMA as wrestlers than Bo is. So listing their inferior wrestling credentials doesn't say much. GSP had zero college wrestling and beat everyone and some great wrestlers. Ed Ruth is among the most accomplished and he's getting spanked in MMA, look at his last two fights. And that was 4 years into his mma career.

Bo has potential but needs more experience. And depending on how he adapts and develops, he could be beating top 15 guys before his 10th fight, Weidman did it.

But right now talk of a Izzy fight is ridiculous. He would get humiliated and it wouldn't even be close. Beyond just the actual fight itself, there is so much more to fighting a guy like Izzy at that level.

Cool, let’s point out the anomaly… now how many GSP’s are there?

Ruth competes at WW where the entire division is a grapplers shark tank to contrast look at Johnny Elben at MW in Bellator. MW is devoid of wrestling talent which is why Bo has a favorable path in MMA.

I think Bo is just as unproven on the feet as Izzy is on the mat. He let Jan easily ride him and mount him.

I don’t think you’re putting enough stock on Bo… maybe you don’t follow collegiate wrestling.

 

[electricfuneral]

the fence does negate some traditional wrestling experience and izzy has pretty good tdd. I think izzy keeps him at bay, hurts him on the way in everytime and wins a decision by a wide margin

 

[Jitter]

Bo seems pretty smooth overall so I think he is for sure a top legit prospect. When you look at someone like Bo and compare him to Mo Usman its like night and day how much more polished Bo is. After the finish Bo seemed a bit winded though which would be a concern considering he fought for less than half a round. Saying he would beat Izzy when we have not even seen him against anyone decent so far is pretty crazy. Definitely think people should pump the brakes a little