Video: Mega prospect Bo Nickal quickly wins on Dana White’s Contender Series, but no UFC deal yet

This week’s edition of Dana White’s Contender Series (DWCS) had a major prospect in the main event, and he’s now one step closer to the UFC.

Three-time NCAA national champion wrestler Bo Nickal made short work of opponent Zach Borrego, submitting his foe with a rear-naked choke a mere 62 seconds into the contest. To give you an idea of how highly touted Nickal was, he closed as a -2800 favorite according to the broadcast.

Borrego missed the middleweight limit on Monday, and wasn’t competitive for even a second of Tuesday’s fight. Nickal scored an early takedown, was looking for chokes early and eventually got one in a finish you can see in the video below.

The former Penn State star is now 2-0 in his burgeoning professional MMA career, having won his debut via 33-second KO in Virginia just a couple of months ago. He had a couple of amateur MMA fights before turning pro and won them both in the opening round.

In the lead-up to this fight, Nickal said to MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn that he could see himself competing twice on Contender Series before a UFC debut later in the year. So with that in mind it’s not too surprising that during the awarding of contracts, Dana White told UFC analyst and reporter Laura Sanko that Nickal will make another appearance on the show, and if he wins that (and presumably in impressive fashion) it’s off to the big leagues he goes.

Nickal has not even two minutes of cage time to his name in the professional ranks, but it’s hard not to get excited about his potential. We’ll see how his third fight goes and if he does get on the UFC roster, he will immediately be one of the top prospects to watch in all of MMA.

As for those who did get contracts, Jamal Pogues, Erik Silva (no, not former UFC welterweight Erick Silva), and Clayton Carpenter got the nods, while Karolina Wójcik came away empty-handed.