Paul Craig vs.
Bo Nickal
Two full careers, measured against each man's own division and against each other — the tape, the read, and every number behind them.
The men, measured.
Frame, age, layoff and recent form — green marks the edge on each line.
What the numbers say.
Scouting notes, auto-generated — only stats deviating more than 25% from the division median make this list. No narratives, just deviations.
Who did they actually beat?
Full-career records re-graded by the tier of opposition — the same grading the Contender Series pick model uses. Records built on tier-4 competition are worth less than records built on killers.
Paul Craig
| Competition tier | W | L |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — UFC / DWCS / PFL / Bellator / ONE / Rizin | 9 | 10 |
| Tier 3 — regional circuit | 8 | 0 |
Tier-weighted record quality: 0.89 · 9 tier-1/2 wins · 17 finish wins over 29 documented bouts
In the UFC: 5-7 against opponents who walked in above .500 · avg opponent walk-in record +1.5 wins over .500
Bo Nickal
| Competition tier | W | L |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — UFC / DWCS / PFL / Bellator / ONE / Rizin | 8 | 1 |
| Tier 3 — regional circuit | 1 | 0 |
Tier-weighted record quality: 2.31 · 8 tier-1/2 wins · 8 finish wins over 10 documented bouts
In the UFC: 2-1 against opponents who walked in above .500 · avg opponent walk-in record +0.6 wins over .500
The stand-up battle.
Career totals; norms are the medians of each man's own division.
Significant strikes — landed & absorbed
Where the fight happens (share of sig. strike attempts)
Paul Craig
Distance 78.4% (norm 80.5%) · Clinch 8.6% (norm 8.6%) · Ground 12.9% (norm 10.4%)
Bo Nickal
Distance 82.7% (norm 79.4%) · Clinch 6.8% (norm 9.1%) · Ground 10.4% (norm 10.3%)
What they throw (share of sig. strike attempts by target)
Paul Craig
Head 68.3% (norm 79.2%) · Body 21.8% (norm 11.7%) · Legs 9.9% (norm 9.7%)
Bo Nickal
Head 72.7% (norm 78.0%) · Body 15.8% (norm 13.4%) · Legs 11.5% (norm 8.4%)
Zone accuracy matrix Landed / attempted by zone
Green ≥ division median, red below. UFCStats tracks position and target as separate splits.
| Zone | Craig L/A | Acc | Light Heavyweight med | Nickal L/A | Acc | Middleweight med |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BY POSITION | ||||||
| At distance | 283 / 728 | 38.9% | 41.4% | 137 / 230 | 59.6% | 40.5% |
| In the clinch | 57 / 80 | 71.2% | 70.9% | 13 / 19 | too few to rate | 70.3% |
| On the ground | 81 / 120 | 67.5% | 72.3% | 21 / 29 | 72.4% | 69.1% |
| BY TARGET | ||||||
| To the head | 211 / 634 | 33.3% | 38.9% | 110 / 202 | 54.5% | 38.9% |
| To the body | 133 / 202 | 65.8% | 71.9% | 33 / 44 | 75.0% | 71.7% |
| To the legs | 77 / 92 | 83.7% | 81.8% | 28 / 32 | 87.5% | 83.3% |
Zones with fewer than 25 attempts are marked "too few to rate". Each fighter is measured against the median of leaderboard-eligible fighters in his own division (Light Heavyweight: 93 fighters · Middleweight: 174 fighters).
What lands on them Opponents' accuracy against each man
Green ≤ division median — harder to hit than the typical man in his division.
| Zone | vs Craig L/A | Opp acc | Light Heavyweight med | vs Nickal L/A | Opp acc | Middleweight med |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BY POSITION | ||||||
| At distance | 281 / 584 | 48.1% | 40.4% | 83 / 234 | 35.5% | 39.5% |
| In the clinch | 49 / 60 | 81.7% | 68.7% | 19 / 21 | too few to rate | 70.9% |
| On the ground | 181 / 259 | 69.9% | 70.4% | 0 / 0 | too few to rate | 69.0% |
| BY TARGET | ||||||
| To the head | 353 / 713 | 49.5% | 37.5% | 41 / 174 | 23.6% | 37.9% |
| To the body | 78 / 97 | 80.4% | 72.3% | 37 / 53 | 69.8% | 71.3% |
| To the legs | 80 / 93 | 86.0% | 83.0% | 24 / 28 | 85.7% | 82.1% |
The ground war.
Takedowns, control and submissions — career totals with each man's per-minute rates against his division norm.
Bars compare the two men's rates (per-minute / per-15 figures), not raw totals — Craig has more cage time on record.