NEW YORK – Paul Craig sees his jiu-jitsu as Bo Nickal’s kryptonite.

Craig (17-8-1 MMA, 9-8-1 UFC) takes on the highly touted Nickal (6-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) on Saturday at UFC 309 (pay-per-view, ESPNews/Hulu/FX , ESPN+ ) main card at Madison Square Garden in New York. Nickal has primarily used his wrestling in his six professional fights, but Craig warns this could lead to his downfall.

“He’s still a little green in color,” Craig said of Nickal during Wednesday’s UFC 309 media day. “He may have all these credentials in the world of wrestling, but this sport is not wrestling. We integrate wrestling, and it’s like having only a knife in a gunfight. You have to have all the tools, and I believe my tool belt is much better equipped than his. I truly believe that the roots of my victory will be my jiu-jitsu foundation.

Wrestling may be Nickal’s world, but Craig says fighting against his back is what’s best for him. He was able to finish both former UFC light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill and top contender Magomed Ankalaev while in the bottom position.

‘Will Bo take me down? Yeah,” Craig said. “Will that be a bad idea for Bo?” I believe it. I believe that when you put me on my back, that’s where I’m most dangerous, and we saw that against people like Krylov, when I was on my back against Jamahal Hill. This is where I am most dangerous. So I really believe that his plan shouldn’t be to take me down and leave me flat on my back.

Nickal was recently able to show his hands in a 38-second TKO win over Val Woodburn, and Craig acknowledges that. However, he expects his strike to cause bigger problems.

“He’s a very good striker, he’s got power in his hands and he’s very, very fast,” Craig said. “But I do believe that my stroke is just a little bit longer and I can use that range. The reason we went to middleweight is to get that size advantage, and I showed that against people like (Andre) Muniz in London, where I used my reach and my size to close the distance between fights. manipulate, and I am I want to copy that in this battle.’

For more information on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s events hub for UFC 309.