The “Greatest Pure Athlete Who Ever Lived” will be back in the UFC octagon on September 27 when he takes on Donovan Beard on Dana White and Bo Nickal’s Contender Series.
Beard will surely be the staunchest test of Nickal’s young career thus far. He had eight amateur fights where he went 5-3, and now has eight professional fights where he has gone 7-1. Five of those professional victories have come by finish; three of them submissions and two of them via knockout. Perhaps most impressively, none of Beard’s four losses — amateur or professional — have come via finish.