Chael Sonnen is not happy with Bo Nickal’s performance at UFC 309.
Nickal (7-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) remained unbeaten when he outstruck Paul Craig (17-9-1 MMA, 9-9-1 UFC) in Saturday’s main card at Madison Square Garden in New York. Despite sweeping the scorecards, Nickal was met with boos by the crowd and a chant of “overrated.”
Sonnen thinks Nickal looked composed but was irked with how little activity took place in the fight. He wasn’t a fan of his game plan, in which Nickal didn’t attempt a single takedown.
“My problem with it and my gripe is that you have a four-time world champion. … Doesn’t do one damn bit of wrestling because somebody got a hold of him,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “One of his trainers or his training partners sat him down and said, ‘You’re not ready to go to the ground with the guy.’ Well how the F would we know? How in the F we would know that now?”
Nickal called his performance “picture-perfect,” alluding to a successful game plan. Sonnen puts the responsibility on Nickal’s corner for not encouraging him to play to his strengths, and pointed to Georges St-Pierre as an example of someone who never strayed away from his game plan.
“You do not look at your opponent’s game to decide your strategy,” Sonnen said. “That is nothing that Bo has ever done. He didn’t show Gabe Dean that respect. He didn’t show Myles Martin that respect. He did not show David Taylor that respect. And he refuses to take down. A four-time world champion refuses to use one bit of wrestling against a guy that’s never had a wrestling match. That is because of somebody in his trusted inner circle.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.