Bo Nickal maps out five-fight plan to UFC title: 'This is a good step up with Paul Craig'

Bo Nickal reiterates he is in no rush to climb to the top.

Nickal (6-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) faces his most notable name to date when he takes on Paul Craig (17-8-1 MMA, 9-8-1 UFC) in a middleweight bout at UFC 309 Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden.

Although Nickal is a highly touted prospect, he isn’t looking to be fast tracked. He has an idea of how his path to the UFC title will look like.

“This is a good step up with Paul Craig,” Nickal said on his YouTube channel. “So, take care of business and then I want to (fight) two more guys that are unranked. Then fight a ranked guy.

“So at that point, I’ll be 7-0, 8-0, 9-0, fight a ranked guy, 10-0. 11-0, probably fight a top-five guy, and then fight for the belt around 12-0. That’s what I’m planning on right now. We’ll see, but definitely zoom focused on this next fight.”

If he can get through Craig, Nickal hopes to draw bigger names moving forward.

“I’m just going to smash this guy, and then I want to get exciting fights now,” Nickal said. “I feel like I’ve fought enough guys that have kind of not really been very dangerous to me. I haven’t even been hit really in a real fight yet.

“So I want to start fighting better guys for sure. Once I get a ranked fight, I think I’m only going to have to fight two or three before the belt. At that point, it’s like straight to it.”

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