Bo Nickal says Gable Steveson threatened to KO him backstage before UFC 331 upset: 'This is insane'

Bo Nickal and Gable Steveson are no longer on friendly terms.In recent years, no wrestling-to-MMA transitions have been bigger than the respective collegiate and Olympic standouts, Nickal and Steveson. After his pro MMA debut in 2022, Nickal instantly became one of the sport's hottest prospects, and the UFC signed him just three fights into his career. This past year, the same happened at heavyweight with Steveson, who debuted professionally in late 2025.Nickal, 30, is gearing up for his first UFC main event against fellow middleweight contender Joe Pyfer in February at UFC Cleveland. Meanwhile, Steveson recently suffered his first-career loss in a devastating upset in September, when Sean Sharaf knocked him out in just 12 seconds at UFC 331.Speaking on Monday's edition of "The Ariel Helwani Show," Nickal said he felt bad for his fellow wrestler-turned-MMA prospect after the tumultuous fight week."Off the rip, I felt bad," Nickal told Uncrowned. "That sucks to go out there and get knocked out, especially with the position he was in, where he's under a lot of scrutiny. A lot of the stuff he's under scrutiny for, I don't really know a lot of the information or inside what actually happened. So if none of that is true, I would feel especially bad for him. But obviously, if it is true, that's awful, terrible, disgusting. But I don't really know. So that's where my reaction was."In 2019, Steveson was faced with allegations of sexual assault, which became a hot-button topic that resurfaced during his latest fight week. Steveson ultimately incurred no criminal charges in relation to the allegations.Nickal is no stranger to tasting defeat in a tough upset loss. In May 2025, the Penn State alum suffered a crushing second-round TKO to knee strikes from Reinier de Ridder, snapping his undefeated seven-fight win streak. Since then, Nickal has rebounded with two strong stoppage wins over Rodolfo Vieira and Kyle Daukaus, while also taking freestyle wrestling matches with RAF. In his last appearance for the latter — coincidentally at RAF's Cleveland event — Nickal said he and Steveson surprisingly butted heads backstage after the pre-match press conference."His fight before that [against Elisha Ellison], it was weird; he started just talking crap about me really randomly," Nickal said. "It was weird. He said what he said, and I don't know if somebody was telling him to say these types of things or why he would do that off the rip. Because me and him have always been very cordial and very nice to each other, and talked many times, and been respectful. So, the way he went, I was just a little surprised."Then we had a RAF event where we were competing in the same event right after that, and I went right up to him, and I was like, 'Bro, what's your problem? Why are you talking crazy about me?' And he was like, 'You're talking about me.' And I'm like, 'I responded to you, but we're both wrestlers. We come from the same background: American wrestling. We should prop each other up. I've said nothing but kind things about you in the media, and so we should just do that.'Bo Nickal returns to face Joe Pyfer in February at UFC Cleveland.Sean Jorgensen via Getty Images"Honestly, it got kind of heated at that point, and we talked about doing a wrestling match, doing a fight, and I was like, 'Bro, what are you even talking about, man? This is insane,'" Nickal continued. "And he was like — I remember this so vividly — he's like, 'I'll knock you out.' That's what he said to me. And I'm like, 'You absolutely won't knock me out. I don't know if I beat you in a wrestling match, but I would destroy you in a fight. I'm absolutely confident in that.' Then one of the things I said to him was, 'You have no defense. You're not experienced enough to understand how to get away from these strikes. That's going to come with time. That's going to come with experience. I learned this too, when I fought 'RDR,' so like, you’ve got to learn these things.' “And then boom — however many weeks later [he gets knocked out]."Although Nickal's MMA prediction ultimately came true, funnily enough he wasn't even awake to see it, he said. Nickal was asleep before waking up to countless texts and calls asking if he'd seen Steveson’s fight with Sharaf, and he was shocked to hear how it went.Even though he was right about Steveson for now, Nickal admits he still feels bad about how things turned out. Most of all, he's confused about where the relationship went south between them. And as heated as their altercation may have been, Nickal doesn't believe Steveson would ever fight him on the spot like the Olympian may have teased."That sucks, and we'll see how he responds to this [loss]," Nickal said. "We'll see if he gets back on the grind, gets back to work, and the big setbacks can lead to big comebacks. So I hope that he can figure his stuff out, and I'm still, I mean, again, it's weird all the stuff between us, but I still want to root for him and want him to do well."He's like, 'If we fought, I'd knock you out,' and I'm like, 'I'm right here, bro. I'm right here,' and he's like, ' Alright, yeah.' [He wasn't going to] do anything to me. That's the reality of it."I never felt like we were going to fight, but it was more of an argument of what would happen if we did, and I just told him, 'You have no defense. You have no experience,' and then, obviously, that kind of was true, and we all saw what happened."Ultimately, Nickal believes people around Steveson could be the reason for the sudden jabs he's taken from Steveson.Steveson has assembled a notable crew to help him kickstart his MMA run, including all-time great former UFC champion Jon Jones. But specifically, Nickal doesn't think Jones is one at fault, as the two of them have always been cool with each other, he said."It's just weird, because I didn't really want that beef initially," Nickal said."I think, honestly, he's getting advice from people to go after me, because when you look at my position in the media and my position, like maybe I can be looked at as a target because a lot of casual fans think I'm privileged, 'whatever wrestler,' this, that. So maybe he's getting advice to go after me from somebody. But I don't know. It just was really out of left field to me."