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Things got a bit heated between Bo Nickal and Colby Covington at Real American Freestyle’s RAF 05 press conference.
On Friday, Covington was on stage talking about his wrestling match with Luke Rockhold, which is set to air on Fox Nation on Saturday, January 10th, when he saw Nickal in attendance and began trashing him.
“There are entitled bozos in this building that think they should be in the headliner, my name is in history for being the biggest draw there, I’m not out here giving the Sandusky special.”
“Didn’t you get beaten up by a Dutch kickboxer?” Covington said to Nickal.
We spoke to Nickal after the press conference, and this is what he had to say about his confrontation with Covington.
What happened between you and Colby?
“Of course, the cameras come on, and he likes to talk crazy. But, yeah, I mean, he makes sure any time he’s walking around here, he keeps in the other room for me and all the other wrestlers because he’s not a real wrestler. He acts the way he does. It is what it is. That’s just his thing.”
Would you like to wrestle him?
“I mean, he would never wrestle me in a million years. I mean, if he decided to, I would literally be on my knees, thank God, because of that gift. So there’s zero chance he would ever wrestle me or fight me. I I would sign the contract in a second for either of those. And there’s no way to do it.”
On Saturday, you’re wrestling 48-year-old Yoel Romero, who recently beat Pat Downey at RAF 04. Talk to us about this matchup.
“I think Cubans age about half as fast as everyone else. So technically he’s probably 24 or 25. So I think I got a couple of years on him. But he’s a great competitor. He’s a legend. He’s a guy that I have watched so many times. And so I’m honored to be able to compete against him.”
This match against Yoel is kind of a lose-lose for you because people expect you to win because he’s much older. Why take this match if that’s the case?
“I just want to compete against guys that I respect, that are great competitors. And he’s shown that, even at his age, he can beat some of the best guys in the world. So for me, I’m taking this match very seriously. It’s against a guy that’s extremely talented, and I’m looking forward to going out there and competing.”
How important is RAF for wrestlers to have another pathway to earn money other than going to the UFC?
“Yeah, I mean, RAF is where it’s at. They’re doing an amazing job. This is going to be the biggest wrestling platform out of anything. It’s going to be the NBA, the NFL, MLB. It’s going to be on par with that soon. So I think that the events that they’re putting on right now and the momentum they’re getting, it’s amazing for the sport, and it’s just going to keep growing.”