NEW YORK – Bo Nickal has been to Madison Square Garden before: the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, one of the lowest moments of his otherwise untouchable collegiate career.

Competing as a 19-year-old freshman at 174 pounds after redshirting his freshman year at Penn State, Nickal went 26-1 during the regular season, dominated the Big Ten Championship, entered the NCAA Tournament as the top seed and went to the final. But there, in front of a sold-out crowd under Garden Lights, Nickal was upset by the tournament’s No. 11 seed, Myles Martin, a freshman from Ohio State whom he had defeated three times earlier in the year when he was on his tear.

“That was a difficult moment for me. Being a young kid and losing on that stage; I missed a goal that I trained so hard for,” Nickal said Wednesday, back in New York, where he will fight again at the Garden on Saturday against Paul Craig at UFC 309. “I feel like I’m taking the positive and the negative taken. The negative: not achieving my goal. But the positive thing is that you can learn from that experience and mature.

“I’ve been there, I’ve experienced loss. I know what it feels like. It’s been eight years since that happened – and it has motivated me every day for those eight years. And now I get the chance to redeem myself.”

That’s the intensity Nickal has brought to his still embryonic MMA career. He now competes in a completely different sport and is still trying to avenge a loss from nearly a decade ago to a wrestler he went 9-1 against during their collegiate career.

But that’s the intensity that elite athletes like Nickal bring to almost everything they do. The intensity that has allowed him to make light leaps in MMA, to the point where he will compete on his fourth UFC main card this Saturday in just his sixth professional fight.

“I live in that intensity, you know?” Nickal said. “You should have seen some of the workouts I did as a little kid; I should have seen some of the workouts I did in high school and college. Most people wouldn’t believe this kind of thing is going on. The intensity is really not a problem for me. If necessary, I can ramp it up very quickly.”

Nickal had been a star in the wrestling world since dominating the Texas state high school tournaments as a teenager and entered the UFC as one of the most talented athletes outside of the sport. He is a three-time NCAA Division 1 national champion, U23 world champion and the 2019 Big Ten Athlete of the Year. He was a finalist to represent the U.S. at the 2020 Olympics, falling in team trials to eventual Olympian David Taylor gold medalist of 86 kg.

Shortly after those Olympic trials, Nickal made his amateur MMA debut, earning a pair of first-round stoppages before jumping to the regional circuit and knocking out his first professional opponent in under a minute. Just two months later, he appeared on the UFC radar, winning twice via submission in the first round of Dana White’s Contender Series and earning a contract with the promotion.

In the span of four months, with less than five minutes of octagon time, Nickal went from making his professional debut to being booked for his first UFC pay-per-view against 21-fight veteran Jamie Pickett. And after the fight was postponed three months to give Nickal a chance to overcome a shoulder injury suffered in a scooter accident, he also ran through Pickett, sinking an arm triangle midway through the first round.

A first-round knockout of Val Woodburn and a second-round submission of Cody Brundage followed, raising Nickal’s record to 6-0 and raising his hype to immeasurable levels. But on Saturday, Nickal will face his toughest opponent yet in Craig, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who has won 13 of his 17 professional victories via submission.

For the first time, Nickal faces an elite wrestler who poses serious threats if he chooses to wrestle. He will also be at a significant experience disadvantage, with just 12 minutes and 10 seconds of octagon time to Craig’s nearly two and a half hours.

“He’s a guy who brings a lot of danger and solves some interesting problems,” Nickal said. “This is the biggest challenge I’ve had. … Something that is very important to me about this fight is that it will show that I am a complete fighter and that I have skills beyond just wrestling. While in the other fights I was able to use wrestling to really dominate.

It should be an interesting test of Nickal’s development, although oddsmakers don’t believe it, giving him squash match odds ranging from -1100 to -1400. That’s despite Craig having victories over the past three years over Jamahal Hill and Nikita Krylov, both ranked in the top 10, a division higher at light heavyweight.

It says one thing about Craig’s recent form, as the 36-year-old has lost four of his last five and has looked significantly diminished after making a significant cut back to middleweight. But it says something else about Nickal’s talent. He has absorbed just seven strikes in five UFC appearances. The only opponent he hasn’t knocked out at will is Woodburn, whom he knocked out 38 seconds into the fight. He will have a huge advantage in speed and athleticism over Craig, who admits Nickal’s skills are unusual.

“I truly believe Bo Nickal has all the qualifications and skills to be a champion,” Craig said. ‘He has to get past me first. And I really believe it will be an uphill battle for him.”

It’s worth noting that Craig is perhaps most dangerous when he’s on his back. That’s the position from which he defeated Hill, trapping the former lightweight champion in a triangle as he dislocated his elbow and earned a stoppage with upside blows. So did Krylov, who forced Craig to tap with a triangle that he sank out of nowhere after spending most of the fight with Krylov raining down shots from above.

The fighters who have performed best against Craig have ruthlessly defended takedowns and kept the fight going at close range. Nickal could also choose that. No matter how inexperienced his opponent is, Nickal should be able to handle Craig’s attack. But he would still try to win the fight with one of the still-developing aspects of his game.

“He’s a very good striker. He’s got the power in his hands. He’s very, very fast. But I really believe my stroke is just a little bit longer and I can use that range,” Craig said. “Space will be in not be Bo Nickal’s friend this fight.”

This is why styles argue; and why UFC created it. Craig can counter Nickal’s strengths, but isn’t a major threat to his weaknesses. He’s a name recognizable enough to sell the fight, but far enough removed from his prime to have control over it. Nickal doesn’t get a huge jump in the competition; he gets just enough. And a chance against an unremarkable striker to add another highlight to his resume.

“Something that is very important to me about this fight is that it will show that I am a complete fighter and that I have skills that go beyond just wrestling,” Nickal said. “Whereas in other fights I’ve been able to use wrestling to really dominate. Paul Craig is great on his back. So it will show that I have wrestling skills, that I have striking skills.

The UFC has a delicate risk-reward line for Nickal to follow as it helps him fight for the sake of fighting, fueling his development and upward momentum with the right matchups at the right times, while resisting the temptation to push him to more prominent bookings to rush against stronger fighters. I’d love to be the one to derail the hype train.

Nickal’s athletic background and work ethic have allowed him to quickly improve the overseas aspects of his MMA game. But he can only gain so much ground against competitors who have been batting or practicing jiu-jitsu for decades. Put him in an octagon against an experienced fighter with a deep bag of tricks in a skill set that Nickal is still comfortable with, and he risks being exposed.

But the organization can’t waste star potential like Nickal’s by booking him against no-names at the UFC Apex on Fight Night cards. And some fans are already starting to crow about perceived inaction and favoritism. The first argument is difficult to make because Nickal has fought twice a year since joining the UFC; but the latter has some credibility when you see him go from his professional debut to a pay-per-view main card in less than a year.

Ultimately, it’s a consumer product – and there’s a lot of interest in how Nickal’s MMA career plays out. Also an entertainment product. And Nickal has kept that end of the bargain with early stoppages in each of his fights and then polished skill on the mic. That performance will be difficult to maintain as the competition increases. But the competition has to also make it more difficult to maintain interest.

Of course, Nickal can’t worry about that. He has a fight on Saturday at the venue where he suffered one of his most disheartening defeats – a loss that still haunts him to this day. On Tuesday, Nickal was invited to the Garden to watch a New York Rangers game. It was his first return since the NCAA tournament in 2016. As he walked through the arena, the fear and emotions came rushing back to him.

“I definitely made the match feel bigger than it was. It was a big game and a big opportunity. It definitely overwhelmed me a little bit,” Nickal said of his loss in 2016. “As a kid, things like this happen. And I think God brought that lesson into my life for a reason. Just to help me mature and grow.

“At the end of the day, I know that I am not defined by winning and losing. My worth as a person has nothing to do with my record in sports. It’s about character, treating people well, my commitment, my attitude, things like that. And that’s really a big lesson that I was able to learn from that experience.