Bo Nickal is getting sick of all these MMA guys coming into the wrestling world and being disrespectful to the sport. But don’t expect him to teach Yoel Romero a lesson after the 48-year-old missed weight by seven pounds for their canceled RAF05 fight.
Nickal and Romero have now been booked twice to compete against each other for Real American Freestyle, and twice the match has fallen apart — the first time due to undisclosed reasons on Nickal’s side and this time because Romero weighed in at 212 pounds for their 205 pound bout. Nickal’s decision to pull the plug on the match led to a lot of anger from the Miami, Florida crowd. They booed him mercilessly as he explained to Chael Sonnen over the house mic why he didn’t compete.
“For me, wrestling is about competing but part of that’s making weight and when you show up seven pounds over, that’s disrespectful to the sport,” Nickal told Sonnen.
“Unfortunately a lot of people booing, sounds like a lot of MMA fans that don’t know what goes into wrestling. I’m sure every wrestler in here that’s made weight understands what it takes to do that and that’s what it takes to compete. I showed up ready to go and unfortunately, my opponent didn’t.”
Romero ended up competing on the card anyway, getting handled with surprising ease by Stephen Buchanan. Despite Nickal blaming MMA fans for the hate he received in the arena, we saw a lot of it coming from the hardcore wrestling accounts online.
“Missed opportunity by Bo Nickal in my opinion,” Global Wrestling Order tweeted. “Yes I understand Romero missed weight.. but Bo is 29 years old and one of the best NCAA wrestlers of the last 20 years. He would have defeated the legend.”
“Every bit of info coming out about this card is making it look more and more like a dumpster fire,” the Barn Session Wrestling Podcast tweeted above Nickal’s video announcing the Romero match was off.
Based on Nickal’s words, it doesn’t sound like he’ll accept a third booking against Romero.
“To be honest, I think he’s a heavyweight,” Nickal said. “He’s coming down from 230+ pounds. He obviously couldn’t make 205. I weigh 205 naturally, I fight at 185 in the UFC. Unless he can get down to the weight, I don’t really care. But I definitely have a lot of other guys that I have my eye on. There’s a couple fake wrestlers in the main event, either one of those guys.”
“I think they’re disrespectful to the sport. It’s a travesty that they’re there. We’ve got guys like Kadi Magomedov and [Kyle] Dake, who are legit, world class competitors who deserve that spot and these guys cry if they’re not main event. Either one of those dudes, I’d love to tear them limb from limb and send them packing.”
Nickal has competed for RAF just once back in August for their inaugural event. He might want to get back on the mats soon to erase the bad memories fans have from this weekend. Justified or not, he’s getting a lot of heat for how things didn’t turn out.
