Bo Nickal receives inspiring message from former UFC champ after suffering shock loss at UFC Des Moines

Bo Nickal’s stunning loss at UFC Des Moines reminded an all-time great of one of his lopsided setbacks.

UFC middleweight prospect Bo Nickal suffered one of the year’s biggest upsets in the UFC Des Moines co-headliner.

Nickal, a former NCAA Division I national champion wrestler and then-undefeated UFC star, faced the toughest on-paper test of his career in the Octagon against former ONE champ Reinier de Ridder. Nickal shockingly struggled to have his way on the ground against de Ridder, one of the middleweight division’s elite grapplers, and was knocked out with a liver strike in Round 2.

It was the first professional MMA loss of Nickal’s career after beginning his UFC tenure 4-0 with two separate Dana White Contender Series bout wins. For de Ridder, he moves to 3-0 in the UFC after the former ONE double champion signed with the promotion.

READ MORE: Rising UFC star calls out Benoit Saint-Denis for main event fight after UFC 315 bout canceled

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLCBo Nickal gets strong encouragement from Henry Cejudo after first MMA lossNickal’s loss was without a doubt the most shocking moment from UFC Des Moines. While the main event delivered with a Cory Sandhagen TKO win, Nickal’s defeat was what the card might be most remembered by.

But Nickal is far from the only blue-chip MMA prospect to suffer a setback early on in their UFC tenures. One such former prospect and current UFC star didn’t hesitate to encourage Nickal after the disappointing loss.

In a recent post to X, former two-division champion Henry Cejudo shared a classy post-fight message in comparing one of his most infamous defeats.

“The wrestling world has taken a hit today. Keep your head up [Bo Nickal] this is not the end,” Cejudo wrote after Nickal’s loss.

“I got finished by Demetrious Johnson with a similar body shot and I went on to avenge that loss and become champion. You are capable of doing the same.

“Get back on your horse brother.”

Cejudo lost in his first-career UFC flyweight title shot against Demetrious Johnson at UFC 197, before eventually getting his revenge at UFC 227. He won both the UFC flyweight and bantamweight titles to become one of the promotion’s lone two-weight world champions.

READ MORE: UFC Des Moines star breaks down in tears as she dedicates win to late grandmother

Reinier de Ridder called out a former champ after UFC Des Moines winAs for de Ridder, he called out former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland in his post-fight interview. As of this writing, Strickland hasn’t responded. But a booking for de Ridder against a Top 10 middleweight makes a lot of sense.

Nickal entered UFC Des Moines fight week around 37 pounds overweight, which concerned many fans and pundits leading up to the event. But Nickal made the 186 lb limit successfully on Friday, albeit looking notably drained and drawn out.

Entering UFC Des Moines, Nickal was coming off a hotly criticized win over Paul Craig at UFC 309 in November. It was the first time that Nickal went the full distance in his MMA career.

READ MORE: Bo Nickal vs Reinier De Ridder UFC Des Moines RESULT: Nickal suffers first loss ever in shock result