Bo Nickal remained perfect in his seventh career MMA bout at UFC 309 against Paul Craig, but the ever-talented middleweight prospect left the audience with plenty to be desired this past Saturday night.

The 28-year-old Nickal has been one of MMA's most hyped newcomers since he debuted in 2022. A legendary collegiate wrestling standout from Penn State, Nickal burst onto the scene, taking out his first five opponents in the opening round with all but one ending in less than 63 seconds. Nickal's clash with Craig was by far the longest of his career — he fought to the judges' scorecards for the first time, defeating Craig in a calculated but ultimately one-sided unanimous decision effort.

Unfortunately for Nickal, the performance wasn't the most thrilling for fans, and they let him hear it. In addition to your typical boos, the New York City faithful inside Madison Square Garden showered the middleweight with chants of "overrated."

"It was funny to hear the chants," Nickal said Monday on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show." "It almost just made me laugh, because the crowd and the people that are doing that, I'm looking at — I'll explain it this way, when you get disrespected by people that, in my opinion, have no idea what they're talking about, it's almost a compliment. So to feel that from the crowd, it almost just made me laugh, because it's like somebody insulting you who has no idea what's going on.

"I feel like I controlled the fight, I did everything I needed to do. If I have a bunch of idiot drunk fans that they don't like the way it's going, I think that that's actually probably a good thing."

Nickal expressed his satisfaction with the win in his post-fight interviews on the night. After three rounds, Nickal was awarded 30-27 scores from all three judges.

A decision may not have been the expected outcome considering Nickal was favored at -1200 odds to close, but if anything bothered Nickal about his fight, it wasn't what happened in the Octagon. Along with the fans, the UFC 309 commentary team comprised of Jon Anik, Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier weren't overly enthused either.

Nickal has since watched his win back and was caught off guard by what the trio had to say.

"The commentary and just hearing the way that they were looking at the fight, it made me feel like they didn't know what was going on as much," Nickal said. "Because anybody that I've talked to that are people that I trust and shoot straight with me were like, 'Dude, you shut that guy out. Domination. It was a flawless fight.' Then to hear 'DC' say things like, 'Oh, he's not ready for Khamzat [Chimaev]' — I think he was trying to be respectful but also maybe set me down a peg. It was just weird to hear.

"It was a little disappointing to hear those comments from people that I respect a lot. What was going on in these guys' heads? It just makes me feel like they don't know what was happening. It's confusing because I'm like, 'Wait, what? How do you get that from that?'

"I didn't even really get touched," he concluded. "It's so crazy."

Development and pacing have been big focuses for Nickal and his career trajectory. Well aware of his youth in the sport, Nickal accrued his first five bouts in 13 months, but has since slowed things down as he begins to take on tougher veterans like Craig. Listening to all the noise is just a "lose-lose situation," believes Nickal, so he ignores outside opinions as much as he can.

The Craig matchup was interesting for those high on Nickal because of the stylistic clash of Craig's superior jiu-jitsu against Nickal's superior wrestling. Unfortunately for grappling lovers, the bout took place purely standing and played out as somewhat of a technical chess match. That, for Nickal, is what he is most proud of.

"I'm super happy with my performance," Nickal said. "I feel like that was definitely a real valuable experience for me and my development. I think that the way I won was a pretty big boost to my confidence, knowing that I can go in there against a guy that has 26 or 27 pro MMA fights, however many, 10-12 years of experience, and shut him out for 15 minutes. So I feel like, yeah, maybe the crowd didn't like it because I didn't knock him out or submit him or whatever it was, but I don't really feel like I took any damage.

"He landed maybe one or two strikes with his hands that were insignificant and I felt like I completely dominated the fight — and that was, I think, a really difficult way for me to win, considering my skill set and the way my other fights have gone. How many times do you see a guy fight against a big test, a big step up, and get tired or start to get pieced up or get taken advantage of in areas he's not as well-versed? So I'm really proud of my performance and happy with it."

Nickal isn't sure when he wants to return to action, though if the UFC wasn't impressed with the performance like the crowd, he expects that to show with the type of opposition he's offered next.

But even if viewers were surprised by his lack of takedown attempts, Nickal said he felt comfortable in there, and with 15 minutes in the books, he proved to be fine in the cardio department down the stretch.

"I didn't need to," Nickal said of wrestling. "I was winning the striking and at the end of the day, let's look at Paul Craig's résumé, his record, his stats, the film study, and every single big fight he's won has been from his back. So why would I put myself in a position where he's in his domain when I'm winning the fight? I think for me, that was just fighting smart. Not being an idiot and feeding into the crowd and being emotional, right? That, to me, shows a lot of discipline."