RAF 205-pound kingpin Bo Nickal not too long ago mentioned why he was not within the title unification match with Yoel Romero. Nickal and Romero have been scheduled to sq. off on the Actual American Freestyle occasion on January 10.
Nonetheless, the sunshine heavyweight championship wrestling match was scrapped after Romero missed weight by 7 kilos. Consequently, Nickal was topped the undisputed champion, and ‘Soldier of God’ was stripped of his interim title.
The 30-year-old determined to bow out attributable to his opponent’s main weight miss. Later, Romero competed at RAF 05 in opposition to Stephen Buchanan and lost.
The three-time NCAA wrestling champion acquired backlash from fans and different fighters on the RAF 05 card for deciding to not tackle Romero, even at a catchweight, due to the 7-pound weight miss. In the meantime, Romero instructed MMA Combating:
“Bo Nickal is defending himself in RAF, he can’t take a loss in opposition to me due to what which may do for him within the UFC.”
Bo Nickal on Declining Yoel Romero at RAF 05: “Extra to Lose Than Acquire”
In a current interview with MMA Combating on SBN, Bo Nickal defined why he opted out of the wrestling match and in addition responded to Yoel Romero’s current remarks posted above. Nickal mentioned:
“I feel that what he mentioned is there’s in all probability somewhat little bit of fact to that. For me, coming into that scenario, I really feel like I in all probability had extra to lose than to realize simply because I’m competing in opposition to a man who’s in his 40s, who’s older, and I simply felt like I used to be sort of already giving up a good quantity. After which along with the burden miss, it simply felt like, ‘Man, this doesn’t make sense for me to proceed to love put myself out on this approach.’”
He added:
“I really feel like, clearly, I used to be able to go and compete had the burden been made. I feel even in the event you would have been inside a few kilos, that may have been affordable. In case you’d have been, you understand, two, three, 4 kilos, then I can justify in my head like, ‘Properly, it’s all proper. I’ll nonetheless go compete.’ However at that time, he was seven kilos over. I’m like, this can be a lot of weight to surrender. And he’s already coming down from fairly a bit heavier than what I’m coming down from. So, yeah, there’s positively fact to that. However on the finish of the day, it’s a part of the game is making weight, and it’s what it’s.”
Take a look at Bo Nickal’s feedback under (8:40):
The Bo Nickal vs. Yoel Romero battle has now fallen aside twice, and the UFC middleweight fighter has no real interest in reserving it a 3rd time. Nickal believes Romero struggles to make the 205-pound restrict as a result of the 48-year-old is a pure heavyweight.
Now, Bo Nickal will face two-time Olympic medalist Vladimer Khinchegashvili at RAF07 on March 28.
