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UFC 300
Cody Brundage Won't Be Shocked
UFC Middleweight Cody Brundage Expects To Deliver A Memorable Performance Against Bo Nickal At UFC 300: Pereira vs Hill.
Cody Brundage knows what he’s up against when he faces unbeaten Bo Nickal on Saturday night’s UFC 300 card in Las Vegas.
He also knows that with a win, he will change his life forever.
“There's a lot of great fights on that card, but I go out there and handle business like I think I'm going to, and I'll be the most talked about guy coming off the biggest card in UFC history and you don't get many opportunities like that in life. So it's pretty exciting.”
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Not daunting, not terrifying, but exciting. That’s the competitor in Brundage, and why he embraced the chance to fight Nickal when it was presented to him. You don’t get too many of these in a career, so you’ve got to take them when the call comes, even if it’s a fight offer against one of the most decorated college wrestlers to make the move to mixed martial arts.
“I try to keep tabs on guys that I feel like the UFC might try to put me against, and he's definitely a name that has been brought up,” said Brundage. “And I've said before I got this fight that that's a fight I wouldn't mind having. And I'm a big fan of Bo Nickal. I grew up on the wrestling scene, and he's done a lot for the sport of wrestling. I coach high school wrestling, and that's the kind of guy you're telling your high schoolers to go watch if you want to be a good wrestler. So I've been familiar with him before he ever started fighting and been a fan of his for a long time. But I'm happy that I get to be the guy to be his litmus test.”
You can almost see the smile over the phone lines because Brundage, a collegiate wrestler himself for Newberry College, where he won 96 matches and was a two-time NCAA qualifier, knows that MMA is a whole different game. Nickal has passed all his tests, going 5-0 with five finishes and two UFC victories, but he isn’t as battle-tested in the Octagon as Brundage, who has posted a 4-4 UFC record that includes three finishes, two Performance of the Night bonuses and a couple fights where he had to weather some storms before coming back to win. In other words, he’s been through the fire, got burned a couple times, but still walked out the other side.
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“I don't think there are any easy fights in the UFC, but he’s had some more favorable fights, more favorable circumstances, less dangerous opponents,” said Brundage. “I'm definitely the most dangerous dude he's ever fought. And the most well-rounded. I come from a wrestling background. I'm not a three-time national champ, but I got to the NCAA tournament and have been wrestling my whole life just like he has. So yeah, I'm excited for the matchup. It's one that I was, I guess I'll say, anticipating. My coach (Marc Montoya) called me and said, ‘Hey, we got an offer for you.’ I said, ‘It's Bo Nickal at UFC 300, isn't it?’ And he was like, ‘Holy s**t, yeah.’ I'm like, ‘I just had a feeling.’”
Brundage also has the feeling that he’s going to win this weekend, and since we’re talking about feelings, remember how Max Schmeling saw something in the seemingly unbeatable Joe Louis before their first fight in 1936 and then went and exploited that something, stopping Louis in the 12th round. The something was Louis dropping his left hand after jabbing, and Schmeling drilled his foe with right hands all night. Brundage isn’t dropping any technical hints about the fight, but, in general, he wants to see how Nickal responds to getting in there with someone who wants to take his “0” much like Brundage did to Zachary Reese last time out.
“I think I'm his biggest test to date and I don't really think you can argue with that,” said Brundage. “When we talked last before my fight with Zach Reese, I kind of feel the same way. He's never been tested and I'm the guy that's going to go test him.”
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Brundage slammed Reese into defeat last December in less than two minutes. He may have that in store for Nickal, or he may just try to take him into deep waters to see if he can swim. Either way, the 29-year-old is respectful of his opponent but also curious to see what he’s got.
“It's hard to know if you're down for fighting,” said Brundage. “Everyone's down for winning; winning's fun, winning's awesome. (Laughs) But when you're getting in fistfights, it is different when you get cracked and when you get pushed, and when you get to a point where you're in the deep waters a little bit and you're like, ‘S**t, man, I didn't run this guy over. Everybody told me I was going to.’”
Brundage knows what everybody’s thinking about this fight. But it’s Wednesday. On Sunday, they may be thinking something else.
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“Everybody keeps saying, ‘Man, you could shock the world.’ And my reply is, ‘I'm not going to shock my world.’ I'll shock everyone else, but my world knows what's up and they know how hard I've worked, and they know what I'm capable of. And so, they won't be shocked. They'll be happy for me, but they won't be shocked.”
UFC 300: Pereira vs Hill took place live from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 13, 2024. See the final Prelim and Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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