Bo Nickal bailed on his Yoel Romero match at Real American Freestyle (RAF) 4.
Replacing the UFC middleweight is former Bellator bruiser and well-traveled NCAA wrestler Pat Downey, who takes on “Soldier of God” for the RAF interim middleweight title. Why the promotion created a substitute strap after already announcing that Nickal would return at RAF 5 on Jan. 10 in Sunrise is unknown, but doesn’t make a whole lotta sense.
Nickal has yet to comment on the reason behind his schedule change.
Downey, 33, was defeated twice by Nickal on the Freestyle circuit (2017, 2021) but remains active in competition, having recently air-mailed fellow NCAA veteran (and former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman) at Fury Pro 13 last May.
Here’s the updated lineup for this weekend’s RAF 4 card in Indianapolis:
The entire RAF 4 card streams live on Sat. night (Dec. 20) on FOX Nation.
I was not familiar with the FOX Nation streaming service but when I went to the landing page for more information it was promoting a “political thriller” that “reveals Jesus’s story within a real Game of Thrones world.”
Take that, Hallmark Channel!
