UFC fighter Bo Nickal on competing at the White House and life as an athlete-entrepreneur

there standing up.

Um but uh but anyways uh really really wild and uh let's bring in uh let's bring in Bo.

Let's bring in Bo Nichol. We've talked about it many times on this show.

Welcome to the show. How are you doing, Bo?

Doing great, guys. Thanks for having me on.

Thank you so much for taking the time.

Long long overdue. Uh, so backstory here is Bo somehow was like one of the first 10,000 people to discover TBPN. You're you're an entrepreneur outside of outside of the octagon. And somehow you were in between camps or maybe during camps. You you maybe saw a funny clip of a couple guys uh in suits. And um yeah, I remember getting the notification like Bo Nickel has followed you. And I was like, "Oh, who's this? Who's some troll?" Like Bo Nickel. It was you. Uh and it was a funny moment because um yeah, you know, I probably hadn't even shared that I was a UFC fan on the show. So, uh first off, congratulations. Uh, I was a lot of a lot of the fights last night were high stakes and uh but but yours was the highest stakes cuz I was watching and um I I can't imagine uh what you were going through in the leadup to the fight. Um but you you had a a perfect performance and and uh it was really fun to watch. Um wanted to first off ask what it was like leading up to this event. highest profile UFC event ever by far. Uh and and I want to know I I want to know what that was like.

Yeah, it was pretty interesting. Um I think my experience was a little bit different than a lot of the fighters because I knew immediately after my last fight seven months ago that I was going to be on the card. Um you know, I think most guys didn't find out till, you know, probably 10 12 weeks out and uh you know, I knew seven months that I was going to be on it. So, I started prepping immediately and um yeah, it was just a lot of uh a lot more media, a lot more attention, a lot more buzz. Tried to take advantage of that as best I could, you know, first and foremost by being prepared to whoop ass. But secondly, just you know, um the opportunity with the the you know, viewership and stuff like that and maximizing that. But is that is is that have knowing nine months out that you're going to be fighting like you know 5 feet from the president on the White House lawn.

Is that an advantage?

Is that an advantage or a disadvantage? Because in some ways you're probably more locked in. You know you're taking every moment more seriously, but on the other side like I know I there's been moments where I know I'm going to be like doing public speaking, right? I don't really love public speaking. Uh and and I and and usually I'm thinking like ah it'd be nice to just get this over with. But nine months out, you know, you you don't you gota that's a lot of time being like, I want to I want to get in there.

Yeah, it definitely goes in waves. Like, you know, there's certain times where you feel a little more stressed than certain times you feel really relaxed. Uh for me, it was just staying focused on the process, focused on my systems, refining everything that I do and improving every day. And I knew if I kept doing that for that period of time that I'd just be as prepared as possible. So, you know, really, like I said, riding those waves was was big and just uh being able to, you know, kind of stay stay focused on the process and my systems and refine those rather than like thinking about this big moment 24/7.

Was the crowd any different? Was the vibe in the stadium any different? Does that affect you during a fight?

It was way different. To me, I come from a college wrestling background. So, you know, when you're competing in a home match, you got 10 20,000 people that love you, want you to win, right? And uh and since transition to MMA, I've had like a little bit of mixed emotions towards me. Some people love me, some people hate me, which is it's good for me at the end of the day, but this one definitely felt more like my college days where it was a home match. I felt like everybody was on my side. President Trump was actually the way he was kind of positioned around the ring, it was like he was right next to my corner. So, he was like almost in my corner and uh yeah, it was it was sick.

That's crazy. Uh what about the prep? I saw folks doing walkouts from the Oval Office. Uh do you have enough space to sort of get in the right mindset? Are you stuck in a trailer? Like what is your day of the fight like?

Yeah, day of fights. Um I try to just keep it loose. Um they have you report a few hours early, but I'm just hanging out with my my friends, everybody that's visiting in to come watch me. And um once you get in, you just you get warmed up, get your gloves on, get taped up, and then uh what was really unique for this one is the walk out being next to a Medal of Honor recipient and another um another uh military member was just like they're walking out with you. And so I showed up and the guy that I was next to, he like was just a total badass older guy and was like, "You ready to do this?" And I'm like, "Hell yeah, let's go." And so, you know, that just got me hyped up and just had to have fun with it.

I feel like every UFC is a Super Bowl in some ways. It's it's the top every time, but this was a particularly special moment. Is are you uh optimistic that uh the UFC will find other ways to sort of create even more special events in a calendar crowded with like special events that happen fairly regularly? Not necessarily it's going to be 250 at the White House lawn, but you can imagine that there's just something that breaks through and goes into the mainstream media even bigger like this one did.

I don't know. I don't know how you I don't know how you go bigger.

I don't know. I don't either. I

in space on the moon we'll talk about later. Top of the Eiffel Tower.

Yeah, top of the Yeah, maybe. Who knows?

Who knows? They're they're going to figure out something. They always do. There's always something that comes along. But, uh, yeah, I mean, I I was told this actually did more viewership than the Super Bowl, which yeah,

doesn't surprise me. Um, but, uh, yeah, it was it was unbelievable. I mean,

they're going to figure something out. I'm just going to keep getting better at fighting. So, I focus on that and take care of business on my end promotion.

Where were you watching uh, Ilia Gi from? So, what they did was they had us go back to the hotel, do media, and then uh they had a little room set up for us where we could have all of our families and stuff because postfight they had the presser with all the winners and uh we had to wait until main event was over to do the presser. So, they kind of set up a nice little area with food and stuff for us, but it was all the fighters in there together and it was it was a pretty cool environment. It was insane. Yeah,

that was uh John John given that he didn't watch even though he was cheering for you in

calling me out here.

No, you're it's okay that you're it's okay that you're locked in. You're probably you're probably reading for tech. Um no, but I was explaining like to me to me that was that was the most uh you know the Gachi Ilia was the most insane UFC moment you know going in underdog. He's lost to a bunch of guys that that uh he's lost to multiple guys that that Taporia has, you know, wiped the floor with. Yeah.

Uh and for Gachi to do that in that moment just felt like what a way. I mean, I I was h I was just really happy for the guy, one of those guys who's uh been on top and uh as an American UFC fan. Uh I bet I bet that fight created like a bunch of GIS and a bunch of and a bunch of Bo Nicholls.

I love it. I love it. What does the next week, month, uh rest of the year look like for you now? Like what is it like off this?

I texted Bo last night like, "So happy for you, you know, blah blah blah." You texted back in like 30 seconds. I was like, "What are you doing right now?" Like I would I would have just thrown my phone.

Yeah.

I do like uh Yeah. Post fight for me, I probably take like a week or 10 days to do a little media tour just to kind of maximize that and, you know, do as much as I can. And

it's kind of just like, you know, business. But, uh, I got a couple things planned for the summer. Of course, a bunch of training. Going to take a twoe trip to Japan, see Japan, which is going to be dope. Mhm.

Uh but yeah, usually post fight, like I said, try to, you know, take advantage of the media buzz and then, you know, maybe work a little bit on on some my businesses, things like that while I'm not, you know, directly preparing for a fight and couple couple weeks for vacay if I can slip that in. But, uh, yeah, always staying busy.

You're going to Japan. Anything we can do to get you to stop over in China and get in the ring with one of those humanoid robots? I want to see you clock it so hard.

Yeah, we need explodes into all the humanoid companies. We need to create bow bench and it's like can how long how long can you last? It was like

with with

10 milliseconds.

Yeah. No, easy money for me. I might break my hand on that, but I'll I'll I'll destroy it for

padded gloves or something.

I don't know. Awesome. Well, happy enjoy enjoy the moment and uh come back on uh next time whenever you want to talk about some of your businesses. Uh and yeah, we're we're we're very proud and and uh yeah, enjoy the moment.

To have you as a fan. Thank you so much.

Let's do it. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you all.

Have a great rest of your day. We'll talk to you soon. Let me tell everybody about MongoDB. What's the only thing faster than the AI market? Your business on MongoDB. Don't just build AI. own the