Bo Nickal’s undefeated run in the UFC came to a crushing end courtesy of a Reiner de Ridder knee to the liver in the second round of Saturday night’s UFC Des Moines event.
The former Penn State wrestling champion and highly touted mixed martial arts fighter appeared to be hurt by several knees from de Ridder throughout the fight, and the end came with another well-placed shot at 1:38 of the second round.
“Was just going to say, been spending so much time in the U.S., just wanted to check and see if I’m still Dutch,” de Ridder said after scoring the TKO. “So, I tried them knees, and they are still working.”
Despite Nickal’s decorated wrestling background, de Ridder was known as an excellent grappler and given an advantage in the submission department. Because of that, he was asked postfight if he was surprised that Nickal tried to grapple with him.
“I was a bit surprised,” he said. “Because I noticed during the fight he was fading a little bit.”