Bo Nickal is ready to rebound from his first loss inside the Octagon.

After falling short against Reinier de Ridder in May, the former Nittany Lion will look to get back into the win column when he meets middleweight standout Rodoflo Vieira at UFC 322 on Saturday, November 15. ESPN’s Higor Ciconello was the first to report the matchup.

Nickal earned his UFC contract in 2022 after bagging back-to-back first-round finishes on Dana White’s Contender Series. Since then, he’s added four more wins to his resume, but the three-time NCAA Division I national champion bit off a bit more than he could chew against former two-division ONE world titleholder Reinier de Ridder.

‘RDR’ put Nickal away in the second round of their UFC Des Moines co-main event after catching the world-class wrestler with a nasty knee to the midsection.

Bo Nickal faces another tough test

Some assumed that after suffering his first career loss in MMA, the UFC would give Nickal an easy bounce-back opportunity. As it turns out, that’s not the case.

A five-time BJJ world champion, Vieira could prove to be another tough outing for Nickal. ‘The Black Belt Hunter’ is 3-1 in his last four fights under the UFC banner, including a hard-fought victory over Tresean Gore in August. Before that, Vieira banked matching arm triangle choke submissions against Cody Brundage and Armen Petrosyan.

Overall, Vieira is 6-3 inside the Octagon and boasts an impressive 83% finish rate, all by way of submission.

Craig Pekios

Craig Pekios is a freelance writer born and raised in Bettendorf, IA. Joining LowKick MMA in May 2022, Craig has more than 4,000 articles published that focus on the world of MMA and boxing, including news, event previews, results, analysis, and op-eds.