Israel Adesanya criticizes Bo Nickal for “boring fight” against Paul Craig at UFC 309

Israel Adesanya was critical of Bo Nickal and his performance at UFC 309.

Nickal improved to 7-0 as a pro as he beat Paul Craig by decision. However, the fight wasn’t that entertaining as the two high-level grapplers got into a striking match.

Although it wasn’t the most entertaining, Nickal still did enough to win. However, former UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya thinks Nickal wasn’t comfortable in the Octagon.

“It’s a boring fight, that’s all. He’s letting it go away,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Even when he hurt him, he’s not comfortable on the feet. He looks good striking, but he’s not comfortable. He hurt him but he didn’t know how to get close. Even just fake a takedown to get close and throw some combos.”

Adesanya believes Nickal doesn’t know how to set up strikes. But, that is likely due to his lack of experience, so perhaps going three rounds against a veteran like Craig will help him in the future.

However, Israel Adesanya wasn’t entertained by the fight as he thought Bo Nickal vs. Paul Craig at UFC 309 was boring.

Bo Nickal was happy he went the distance at UFC 309

Bo Nickal went all three rounds for the first time in his career.

Although Nickal wanted to get the finish, he believed going the distance against Paul Craig at UFC 309 will do wonders for his career.

“Definitely, it’s way better for me and my development,” Bo Nickal said at the post-fight press conference. “If you look at my cage time and what I had before this, I over-doubled it, for sure. That’s something that for me I’ve really cornered myself with this reputation of a guy who finishes them and destroys them – because that’s when the expectation is set.

“My expectation is to compete to the best of my ability at 100 percent effort,” Nickal added. “It’s not anything to do with the result. It doesn’t matter: decisions, submissions, knockouts. I’m definitely not disappointed with this result. I was way more disappointed with my last fight and I subbed the guy. This fight for me was picture-perfect.”

Nickal is now 7-0 as a pro and 4-0 in the UFC.