Bo Nickal unexpectedly found himself in the spotlight ahead of the RAF05 competition. Despite minding his own business during the event’s pre-fight press conference, the UFC prospect’s presence was enough to draw some serious animosity from headliners Colby Covington and Luke Rockhold.
Nick was originally scheduled to fight Yoel Romero at RAF05, but withdrew from the title match due to Romero being underweight on the day of the fight. Covington witnessed Covington’s 12-0 technical victory over Rockhold on Saturday after Covington and Rockhold both labeled Nickell a “bum” and slammed his lack of experience in MMA during a viral news exchange.
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Nick told Uncrown’s “The Ariel Helwani Show” on Monday that both men turned down RAF05’s offer to compete with him. Ultimately, Nick found all of the jokes and comments to be unnecessary, unwarranted, and overall disrespectful to the wrestling community.
“The sport is bigger than them, and they’re very disrespectful to the entire wrestling community, which is what they’re meant to do in the first place,” Nickell said of Covington and Rockhold. “It’s sad for me because I’ve always loved and admired the wrestling community so much. I felt like they were just taking shit and I felt like I needed to say something.”
Particularly with Covington, Nickell was Covington’s main rival, and this struck a nerve. Nickell said they were given a chance to resolve any differences on the mat. But with both men still occupying spots on the UFC roster, there’s theoretically a better chance of an MMA fight happening.
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“At the end of the day, that guy is a bum. He’s an idiot,” Nickell said. “I’d love to get in the cage with him. For me, that fight will be personal. Every fight so far for me has been about sport, and this one will be a little different because I’d love to put that guy’s head in there. I think he’s an idiot.”
The 28-year-old Nick enters RAF05 with plenty of momentum after a spectacular knockout of Rodolfo Vieira at UFC 322 in November. The fight was a rebound effort from Nicholls’ first career loss to Rainier de Ridder in May 2025. During the RAF05 press conference, Covington used the loss as a major blow to Nickel, criticizing the decorated wrestler for losing to a “Dutch kickboxer.”
After Nickell’s recent win, he’s already thinking about what he thinks will be the best time and place for his next UFC appearance, especially now that Covington is in his sights.
“I think we’ll do it at the UFC in June [at the White House event]I can absolutely tear that guy up and send him away and end his career,” Nickell said. “So, that’s what I’m looking forward to doing because I don’t think in a million years he’s going to wrestle me. [for RAF]. As far as the fight goes, I don’t think the UFC is too happy with him, so there’s a chance they’ll let him fight me.
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“He said he was about to move up to middleweight. So all the wrestlers out there asked him, ‘Why don’t you have a fight with Beau?’ and he said, ‘He’s not on my level.’ Well, man, I’m not on your level, I’m a pushover, so let’s go in there and I’m going to embarrass you in front of the world.”
After last weekend, a fight between the two was essentially doomed. In addition to being a budding grudge matchup, a matchup of a blue-chip prospect against a fading veteran like the 37-year-old Covington would also make sense for the latter to make his debut at 185 pounds.
Over the course of his career as a multiple welterweight title challenger, Covington developed into one of the most outspoken and controversial figures in MMA. He is loud and proud of his support for U.S. President Donald Trump, whom Nickel also supports. So Nickell plans to put in a good word for the Commander-in-Chief during the Covington game.
“I will definitely fight [Trump] Stand up and tell him to make it happen. because of that guy [Covington] It’s fake. He’s a liar,” Nickell said. “He’s always talking about supporting President Trump and this and that. He does it just to try and antagonize other people. He doesn’t do it because he actually believes it. This guy is a liar. He’s a JUCO bum – he can’t do that in wrestling. He was lucky enough to get into MMA when a lot of people didn’t have the wrestling skills to fight him.
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“In addition to defeating Luke [Rockhold] That night, he hadn’t won anything in seven years. So I think this guy sucks and I would love to end his career. I don’t think he’s going to make it out of the first round with me. “
