UFC fighter Bo Narval returns to MSG but is no longer unbeaten

One year ago, Bo Nickal left Madison Square Garden an unbeaten prospect fresh off his seventh victory as a professional fighter.

The former amateur wrestling stud is back in New York for UFC 322 on Saturday and a bout against legendary world champion jiu-jitsu practitioner Rodolfo Vieira, this time absent the sheen that comes with a perfect MMA record.

If it still smarts that his zero had to go — with Nickal (7-1, six finishes) falling via TKO to Reinier de Ridder in May — he’s doing a good job of masking it.

“For me, setbacks are a part of life, and I think for anybody. It’s nothing new to me,” Nickal, who in 2016 suffered the only NCAA wrestling tournament loss of his career at the Garden, told The Post on Wednesday at media day in midtown Manhattan. “I’ve lost in the national finals, lost in the Olympic trials finals. There are experiences that I’ve had that I can look back on with gratitude.”

The loss to the veteran de Ridder, who went on to join the short list of potential title contenders at middleweight before an October loss, hasn’t shaken Nickal’s trademark calm confidence.

Part of that is the way he deals with the so-called stages of grief differently now as a near-30-year-old husband and father compared to when he was a 20-year-old Penn State star.

“It’s definitely different. You, of course, go through frustration and a little bit of embarrassment. I think when I was younger and I’d lose, I’d get very depressed and feel like my life was over and everything was riding on this one moment,” Nickal said. “But as you get older, you learn that it’s really not the way things work, so I feel I was able to refocus quickly and really just use that as motivation.”

Despite the loss, Nickal continues to feel the love of the wrestling community as one of the most accomplished NCAA grapplers to try his hand at fighting.

That’s not necessarily been his experience with the greater MMA fandom, both before and since the de Ridder fight.

“I honestly feel like the MMA fans, most of the people that I came into the sport and didn’t know me already, a lot of them didn’t like me, for whatever reason,” Nickal said. “Those people, I try to not put too much weight on their opinions because they’re kind of biased right away. It wasn’t like they switched up.”

Fan opinion just isn’t his driving force. His victory last year at the Garden — with the three-time NCAA champion wrestler defeating submission specialist Paul Craig — did little to earn new backers in the city. The crowd voiced its displeasure with the mostly mundane kickboxing battle that went the full 15 minutes.

But for Nickal, it was mission accomplished, and the fans are free to feel how they wish about the aesthetics.

“For me, it’s about doing what I’ve trained to do out there and just really focusing on that,” Nickal said. “However the fight goes is how the fight goes, and however people receive it is up to them.”

The first opportunity to get back in the win column comes in the form of a throwback matchup — with shades of the original UFC tournaments of the 1990s — between the decorated wrestler Nickal and the accomplished submission grappler Vieira (11-3, 10 finishes).

Though both have worked for years to add diversity to their skill sets, that dynamic was a big part of the appeal to this fight for the man who racked up a phenomenal 120-3 record as a collegian.

“This is a fight that I’ve asked for for a long time,” Nickal said. “I thought it would be an exciting matchup for both of us. It definitely gives the vibes of early UFC where, who’s going to win: the wrestler or the jiu-jitsu guy? And we’ll see. I’m happy to represent wrestling.”

Win or lose this weekend, Nickal is still young in this sport and will be back in the octagon again next year. If he has it his way, he’ll sate his hunger for competition with more than the two fights per year that have been customary since his 2023 UFC debut.

There’s a caveat: Nickal would rather do what he can to ensure he competes at the planned UFC White House event in front of a golfing buddy of his: President Donald Trump.

“That’s a huge opportunity and something that’s gonna be historic, so obviously, I want to be on that card,” Nickal said. “Gonna do what I need to do to make that happen.”