RAF 205-pound kingpin Bo Nickal recently discussed why he was not interested in the title unification match with Yoel Romero. Nickal and Romero were scheduled to square off at the Real American Freestyle event on January 10.
However, the light heavyweight championship wrestling match was scrapped after Romero missed weight by 7 pounds. As a result, Nickal was crowned the undisputed champion, and ‘Soldier of God’ was stripped of his interim title.
The 30-year-old decided to bow out due to his opponent’s major weight miss. Later, Romero competed at RAF 05 against Stephen Buchanan and lost.
The three-time NCAA wrestling champion received backlash from fans and other fighters on the RAF 05 card for deciding not to take on Romero, even at a catchweight, because of the 7-pound weight miss. Meanwhile, Romero told MMA Fighting:
“Bo Nickal is protecting himself in RAF, he can’t take a loss against me because of what that might do for him in the UFC.”
Bo Nickal on Declining Yoel Romero at RAF 05: “More to Lose Than Gain”
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting on SBN, Bo Nickal explained why he opted out of the wrestling match and also responded to Yoel Romero’s recent remarks posted above. Nickal said:
“I think that what he said is there’s probably a little bit of truth to that. For me, coming into that situation, I feel like I probably had more to lose than to gain just because I’m competing against a guy who’s in his 40s, who’s older, and I just felt like I was kind of already giving up a decent amount. And then in addition to the weight miss, it just felt like, ‘Man, this doesn’t make sense for me to continue to like put myself out in this way.’”
He added:
“I feel like, obviously, I was ready to go and compete had the weight been made. I think even if you would have been within a couple of pounds, that would have been reasonable. If you’d have been, you know, two, three, four pounds, then I can justify in my head like, ‘Well, it’s all right. I’ll still go compete.’ But at that point, he was seven pounds over. I’m like, this is a lot of weight to give up. And he’s already coming down from quite a bit heavier than what I’m coming down from. So, yeah, there’s definitely truth to that. But at the end of the day, it’s part of the sport is making weight, and it’s what it is.”
Check out Bo Nickal’s comments below (8:40):
The Bo Nickal vs. Yoel Romero fight has now fallen apart twice, and the UFC middleweight fighter has no interest in booking it a third time. Nickal believes Romero struggles to make the 205-pound limit because the 48-year-old is a natural heavyweight.
Now, Bo Nickal will face two-time Olympic medalist Vladimer Khinchegashvili at RAF07 on March 28.