Brundage was aggressive early, pressuring Nickal to try make his undefeated rival uncomfortable and even flashing an unsuccessful flying knee and spinning back fist in the opening minute.
It was an energetic opening from Brundage but that quickly came to an end as Nickal took him to the ground and maintained back control for the majority of the opening round.
Nickal initially went for the rear-naked choke but wasn’t able to get his arm under the neck of Brundage and that remained the case for the rest of the round, with the veteran never really looking in trouble.
Before Sunday Nickal’s longest fight in this MMA career had been two minutes and 54 seconds, although being taken into the deep waters wasn’t necessarily going to be such a bad thing for his development.
Although again Brundage found himself on the ground early in the second round and while he was surviving once more, Nickal was still doing enough to cruise his way to victory unless something dramatically changed.
Unfortunately for Brundage that was not the case as Nickal eventually was able to get the submission and move to 6-0 in the process.
Follow along below for live updates from UFC 300 and read below for wraps of earlier fights!
FULL FIGHT CARD
Main Card (from 12pm AEST)
Alex Pereira (c) v Jamahal Hill — for light heavyweight title
Weili Zhang (c) v Yan Xiaonan — for women’s strawweight title
Justin Gaethje (c) v Max Holloway — for BMF title
Charles Oliveira v Arman Tasrukyan — lightweight
Bo Nickal def. Cody Brundage via submission in Round 2 — middleweight
Prelims (from 10am AEST)
Jiri Prochazka def. Aleksandar Rakic via TKO in Round 2 — light heavyweight
Aljamain Sterling def. Calvin Kattar via UD (30-27 x3) — featherweight
