Ha yeah that’s why I haven’t watched Rizin - time zone difference .. I really miss Pride and K-1
Kenny Florian ‘concerned’ with Bo Nickal after RAF 5 withdrawal
In a recent interview with Submission Radio, UFC legend Kenny Florian shared an interesting take on Nickal’s rocky recent combat sports chapter.
“It’s tough because I’m not quite sure what the perspective is from Nickal and why he decided not to,” Florian said of Nickal. “Is he competing because he’s trying to get better as a martial artist, a fighter, a wrestler, whatever it is, and kind of doing it for fun? Is he doing it because he’s trying to notch yet another win and help the perception of him as an athlete, as a competitor, and perhaps he was concerned that if he did lose, especially against a guy in Yoel Romero who is an elite, elite wrestler, did he feel that he was going to hurt his brand even more?
“I don’t know. It’s a little bit of a concern because, again, this is not a mixed martial arts fight that’s going to go down on his record and I still think if he lost, people would not see it so negatively. I think that when [Nickal] lost [to Reinier de Ridder] that kind of was a big blow to his ego and his momentum as well. I don’t know, maybe that was on the back of his mind. He didn’t want to deal with the criticism.
“You’re going against a guy in Yoel Romero, yes, he’s older, but this is a guy who accomplished more in wrestling that Nickal did on the international, on the global circuit,” Florian continued on Nickal. “When you’re talking about the Olympics, world championships, all that stuff, no shame in losing to someone like Yoel Romero, but I don’t know.” (h/t MMA Fighting)
Nickal is targeting a return to the Octagon later this year, potentially on the upcoming White House card. He is 8-1-0 in his professional MMA career.
I think it’s pretty obvious that Nickal didn’t want to possibly damage his brand by losing to Romero in a Fight that wasn’t even for the title .. I get it from his perspective - the question is, wpuld a loss to Romero hurt his brand? Ehh I think it would a little and let’s face it, Bo needs all the momentum he can get at this point - for some reason he is disliked by a lot of fans in mma .. I’m not sure how the wresting community views him
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he also turned down Downey who was made the weight
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A pair of UFC stalwarts are set to meet at RAF 6 with Chad Mendes returning to the promotion to wrestle Benson Henderson on Feb. 28 from the Mullett Arena in Tempe, Ariz.
The card is headlined by former two-division UFC champion and Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo taking on UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber.
The new match serves as Mendes’ second appearance in the freestyle wrestling promotion after he headlined RAF 3 against fellow UFC veteran Michael Chandler. The back-and-forth match ended with Mendes losing on points to Chandler, but now he’ll look for a win in his second matchup.
As a former UFC lightweight champion, Henderson faced the best of the best throughout his career, which also included a lengthy stint in Bellator.
Before he started competing in MMA, Henderson was an accomplished wrestler as a two-time NAIA All-American at Dana College in Nebraska. Since retiring from MMA, Henderson has dabbled in boxing as well as grappling competitions, and now returns to his wrestling roots.
Mendes vs. Henderson is the latest matchup added to RAF 6, with the card also including World Champion Zahid Valencia taking on Mahmoud Fawzy Sebie and David Carr taking on PFL veteran and one-time NCAA champion Bubba Jenkins.
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That’s a cool matchup.
I looked at tickets. Cheapest is $55. No thanks.
maybe get a job ?
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RAF has already inked another deal with FOX Nation after only 5 events…
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I have one but I’m not going to pay $55 for that.
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