Bo Nickal (1-0 RAF) has been booked to appear three times since joining the Real American Freestyle wrestling promotion’s active roster in July of last year. Other than an Aug. 30 match at Wolstein Center on Cleveland State University’s campus in Cleveland, OH, it’s been radio silence from Nickal as far as wrestling is concerned.
After besting Jacob Cardenas by decision in his RAF debut, he returned to the fabled UFC Octagon in November. Inside Madison Square Garden, he finished Rodolfo Viera (11-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) with a head kick in the third and final round of the UFC 322 featured prelim.
From there, Bo Nickal was due to return to the mats in RAF in late December, but his match versus Yoel Romero was scrubbed due to Nickal withdrawing from the event. Said contest was rebooked for this past week at RAF 05 in Sunrise, FL. Although Nickal came in on-weight at 205 lbs for his light heavyweight match, Romero clocked-in 7 lbs over and Nickal refused to take the match.
In lieu of Yoel Romero’s weight miss at the morning weigh-ins on Saturday ahead of RAF 05 in Sunrise, FL, RAF officials declared Bo Nickal the promotion’s light heavyweight champion. Romero had a match at RAF 05 over the weekend, Stephen Buchanan.
Buchanan’s match against Yoel Romero was a victorious one, winning 10-0 by way of technical fall. Subsequent to Yoel Romero missing weight and Bo Nickal being named RAF Light Heavyweight Champion, he resigned from the card.
Nickal’s move to bow out from competition at RAF 05 with hours to go until the card resulted in controversy from wrestling fans all over.
“I’m really bummed about it, but Yoel was not able to make weight,” Bo Nickal said in an Instagram post on Saturday. “He came in at 212-lb, so 7-lb over what the arranged weight class was, which is unfortunate. Had he been within striking distance, even a couple pounds [over,] we could have made it happen, but seven pounds is a lot to give up at this level.”
Bo Nickal Opens Up on Canceled Match in Ariel Helwani Show Interview
As the new week began Monday, Nickal, who’s 8-1 in MMA with a 5-1 record in the UFC, made an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. During the interview, he took the audience through his morning at the weigh-ins.
“It was tough, it was a tough situation,” he began. “Got there into Florida, had all my family, friends down, a lot of people and was looking forward to competing. Saturday morning at weigh-ins, I weighed-in right at 9 am. I woke up around 203, ate and drank to get up to 205 and then waited for about 45 minutes for Yoel to get to [the] weigh-in and get there. He waited a while, so once he didn’t step on the scale right away, I kind of knew maybe he was over.”
“I expected two, three, four pounds and no worries, we’ll get it going,” he continued. “He stepped on at 212.”
Rationale Behind Bo Nickal’s Decision
Upon consultation with his team, Bo Nickal elected not to accept the RAF match with Yoel Romero. He decided against going forward with the contest out of appreciation for wrestling.
“Part of wrestling is making weight,” he said. “That’s just something that you grow up doing and it’s just part of the sport. Any other tournament, it’s not like, ‘Oh, you don’t make weight, you still get to compete.’ It’s not part of the sport as it is in MMA, it’s very common in MMA.”
Later in the interview, he discussed the reaction of his friends and colleagues over the cancellation.
“The response from every single one of my peers in wrestling is they were shocked,” Bo Nickal said. They were shocked that I was even considering taking it because it did take me a couple hours to really figure it out and every single person I talked to, coaches, teammates, they were like, ‘It’s part of the sport and you don’t make weight, you don’t wrestle.'”
Nickal Sends Message to General Public
Bo Nickal also took time out to address the critics who took him to task over the weekend over resigning from the match.
“Obviously, people want to see me compete,” he said. “I do, too, but they don’t understand what it’s like to be in that position. This isn’t all fun and games. This is not a charity match. This is a professional sporting event, so I came in professional, and unfortunately, he didn’t.”
Final Thoughts
Bo Nickal’s decision to decline to wrestle at RAF 05 and his explanation why he did so shows that there’s something existing in combat sports that’s often thought to be in short supply: Integrity. By refusing to compete in the match with Romero, he sent a message to the rest of his division in Real American Freestyle.
The message is loud and clear: “If you come in on weight, we’ll meet on the mat. If not, go wrestle somebody else. Luckily for Yoel Romero, he was booked to compete against Stephen Buchanan on Saturday night, but unluckily, he went down in defeat.
Bo Nickal won in a bigger way on Saturday night. His victory came in a method that can’t be scored in a match, winning by principle.
