UFC middleweight Bo Nickal was originally scheduled to compete at RAF 4 on Saturday in a showdown against Olympic silver medalist and multi-time UFC title challenger Yoel Romero but he was unfortunately
removed from the card.
While the reason behind Nickal’s withdrawal hasn’t been revealed, the three-time NCAA champion wrestler won’t have to wait too long to compete again as he’s now expected to return to the mats for RAF 5, which is being held on Jan. 10 in Sunrise, Fla.
His opponent will be determined at RAF 4 with Romero now scheduled to face former Olympic hopeful Pat Downey on the card.
“I can that he’ll be back in January,” RAF co-founder Chad Bronstein told MMA Fighting. “I’ll say this about Bo, Bo’s been with the league since day one and he’s an incredible advocate for the sport and for RAF. He’s going to wrestle in January, the winner of that matchup. I think it kind of worked out in a sense. People wanted to see Bo and Yoel but now you’ve got Pat Downey, who’s electric and he’s called out Bo Nickal before and Yoel, who’s Yoel.
“I think it’s a win-win for the sport whether it be Downey or Yoel who goes up against Bo in Miami. You get another good matchup out of it.”
Nickal actually defeated Downey at the 2020 U.S. Olympic wrestling trials before he ultimately fell to fellow Penn State alum David Taylor in the finals. Taylor went onto capture a gold medal.
Ever since then, Downey has been asking for a rematch but to get to Nickal he’ll first have to go through Romero, who at 48 is still an athletic freak and widely considered one of the most accomplished wrestlers to transition into MMA, especially with past wins over Olympic gold medalist Cael Sanderson on his resume.
While it remains to be seen if Nickal ends up facing Romero or not, it turns out the idea to book that matchup came from retired UFC fighter Ben Askren, who now serves as a consultant with RAF.
“That was Ben Askren’s match,” Bronstein revealed. “We all create our own matchups that we all like but Ben’s the one that put that match together. He was like ‘that’s one of my dream matches!’ That was Ben Askren’s idea on that one.”
Of course booking Nickal requires working with the UFC as all athletes under contract aren’t allowed to compete outside the promotion without permission.
In addition to Nickal, UFC veterans like Michael Chandler, Joaquin Buckley and Clay Guida have all competed in RAF with former welterweight champion Belal Muhammad scheduled for his own match on Saturday at RAF 4.
Bronstein says working with the UFC has been incredibly easy and he expects more and more fighters showing interest in RAF to eventually hit the wrestling mats.
“They’ve been very good to work with,” Bronstein said about UFC. “They’ve been approving the matches. We’re a factor of combat sports. What our side of it is family friendly combat. Because it’s wrestling and a lot of great UFC guys or girls have deep wrestling foundations.
“Bella Mir, also in the UFC and jiu-jitsu, but very strong in wrestling. It’s been a good relationship. No complaints on our end. I think a lot of these athletes love wrestling and the fact that they can do it on this big stage, I think is exciting for them.”
