are scheduled to meet at the Real American Freestyle 16 in Long Island, New York on December 19.
The RAF announced the appointment on Tuesday after two previous bookings fell through. Nickal pulled out of a scheduled match at RAF 4 last December for undisclosed reasons. The promotion rescheduled the RAF 5 match in January, but Romero missed weight.
Bo Nickal and Yoel Romero are expected to wrestle on December 19 after previous cancellations
Nickal, 30, won three NCAA Division I wrestling titles at Penn State before transitioning to mixed martial arts in 2021.
Ultimate Fighting Championship the middleweight last wrestled for the RAF in September, defeating 2008 Olympic gold medalist Shirvani Muradov by decision.
Romero, 49, last fought in MMA in 2024 when he lost Thiago Santos at
PFL vs. Bellator. The former UFC middleweight title challenger has since competed in bareknuckle boxing and freestyle wrestling. He lost Darren Till
bare-knuckle boxing in September and to Stephen Buchanan by technical fall in his last RAF appearance.
IT IS HAPPENING 😤 Bo Nickal
takes over Yoel Romero
December 19th on Long Island at #RAF16 Tickets in bio. Watch on @foxnation https://t.co/CW4mkGT5– Real American Freestyle (@RAFWrestlingUSA)
November 10, 2026
