Colby Covington shut out Luke Rockhold in his return to wrestling at RAF 5 and he’s excited to hit the mats again in the near future but don’t expect him to clash with Bo Nickal any time soon.
After taking
shots at the highly touted UFC middleweight prospect at the pre-event press conference, Covington unloaded on him again after his win while blasting Nickal for not accepting a match against Yoel Romero on Saturday when the Cuban failed to make weight. Nickal later revealed that Romero came in seven pounds over the 205-pound limit and he ultimately passed on the match.
That led to RAF scrambling to book Romero against NCAA champion Stephen Buchanan instead with Nickal sitting on the sidelines without competing at the event.
“Absolutely [he should have wrestled Yoel Romero], you’ve got to put RAF on your back,” Covington said about Nickal at the post-match press conference. “You want to be the face of the organization, you’ve got to be a company man.
“So he misses weight by a couple of pounds? Big deal. Luke was 20 or 30 pounds bigger than me and I didn’t complain. I went up a weight class. I weighed 197 with ankle weights on my feet and even the night before at Mar-a-lago with Donald Trump. I stepped up, it didn’t matter. ‘Bozo’ Nickals has no reason to talk any shit. He should go back and stop quitting in the octagon before he ever speaks my name again.”
Covington initially took aim at Nickal over his UFC resume when he joined the organization as a three-time NCAA National Champion in wrestling and started his career with an undefeated run before he suffered a brutal body shot knockout loss to Reinier de Ridder back in May 2025.
Nickal bounced back with a head kick knockout over Rodolfo Vieira this past November but that seemingly didn’t impress Covington very much.
While Nickal even went as far as suggesting he should fight Covington at the upcoming UFC White House card in June, the one-time interim welterweight champion shut that down in a hurry.
“Oh the quitter Bo Nickal? I call him ‘Bozo’ Nickals,” Covington said. “He bailed on RAF the last fight against Yoel. He bailed on this one. He quit in his last fight. Actually, I want to apologize to Reinier de Ridder because I called him a Dutch kickboxer. My bad, he’s actually a grappler. So a grappler made Bo quit in the octagon. Bo’s a quitter. I don’t have time for quitters. He can get in line.
“There’s a long list of people that want to compete against me in RAF but I want guys that are dependable. Guys that are company men. I love RAF, Real American Freestyle is the future of wrestling so I want guys that are dependable and I know are going to show up and ‘Bozo’ Nickals is not that guy.”
