Yoel Romero was scheduled to compete against Bo Nickal at the RAF05 wrestling event last weekend in Sunrise, but “Soldier of God” missed weight by seven pounds and Nickal withdrew from the contest. In addition to Romero, Jordan Oliver also came in heavy and was stripped of his featherweight strap.
So what happened?
“In Yoel’s defense, RAF moved the goal post the week of the event,” former UFC lightweight, Josh Thomson, wrote on social media prior to the event. “RAF decided to change the weigh ins to same
day weigh ins instead of day before like they’ve been doing for past events. None of the athletes knew this until two days ago. Bad decision by RAF the week of the event.”
Making weight was also an issue for Romero during his middleweight run in UFC. RAF opted to keep the 48 year-old Olympian in the “Sunshine State” lineup against NCAA national champion Stephen Buchanan, but “Soldier of God” was shutout by the former Hawkeye via technical fall (10-0).
“No excuses,” Romero said after the match. “The young man is really strong.”
Romero was stripped of his interim light heavyweight title, making Nickal the undisputed 205-pound champion despite his decision to skip the event. No word on when Nickal will make his RAF return but he’s expected to compete at UFC White House in June, according to this statement.
Stay tuned.
