Ranked UFC fighter claims Bo Nickal would ‘destroy’ Paul Craig in potential clash: ‘He’s f*cking terrible’
Top-15-ranked lightweight Renato Moicano believes Paul Craig is biting off more than he can chew by challenging fast-rising prospect Bo Nickal.
‘Bearjew’ made his middleweight debut on Saturday night as part of a stacked UFC London card inside the iconic O2 Arena. Craig scored himself a solid second-round TKO against BJJ specialist Andre Muniz and proceeded to put the rest of the middleweight division on notice. That included callouts of world-class wrestler Bo Nickal and undefeated Chechen monster Khamzat Chimaev.
Craig insisted that Nickal would play directly into his grapple-heavy game plan before telling members of the media that Chimaev would “get triangled” if he attempted a takedown in their hypothetical showdown. Most fight fans chalked up Craig’s comments to clout-chasing, but Moicano believes that ‘Bearjew’ could live to regret those words.
Renato Moicano Unloads on Paul Craig
Speaking on his YouTube channel. Moicano laid into Craig, suggesting that the Scottish standout is “f*cking terrible.”
“Paul Craig. Man, Paul Craig is terrible. I know you guys gonna roast me for saying that, but he’s f*cking terrible,” Moicano said. “Even his top position in the first round, he got reversed very easily. I think what happened in this fight is ‘Sergipano’ is a jiu-jitsu player, too, so he sat in the guard and stuff.
“But Paul Craig’s standup is terrible. He was talking about Bo Nickal. Bo Nickal would destroy him. Khamzat would destroy him,” Moicano continued. “I know you guys like that kind of stuff, but let me tell you something, he’s terrible… Make no mistake, he’s terrible” (h/t MMA News).
After reaching the No. 9 spot in the light heavyweight rankings, Paul Craig hit a couple of brick walls at 205 named Volkan Oezdemir and Johnny Walker. Ready for a change of scenery, ‘Bearjew’ made the drop to 185 and looked quite good doing so on Saturday night. Taking out the middleweight division’s No. 14 ranked fighter, Craig expects to see his name in the top 15 shortly and plans on ascending to the top of the division within the next five years.
A fight with Bo Nickal is certainly within the realm of possibility considering they are both relatively new to the UFC’s middleweight division, but Paul Craig has some work cut out for him if he wants to share the Octagon with Khamzat Chimaev someday.
