Nickal vs. Romero rescheduled for third time at RAF 16 on December 19

Bo Nickal and Yoel Romero have been rebooked for a catchweight crossover bout at RAF 16, set for December 19 in Long Island, N.Y. — the third time the promotion has attempted to stage this matchup after two successive cancellations.

The pair were first scheduled to meet at RAF 4 last December, but Nickal withdrew for undisclosed reasons. A second attempt at RAF 5 in January also collapsed when Romero missed weight. RAF confirmed the latest booking on Tuesday.

Nickal, 30, enters the fight as a top-15 contender in the UFC’s middleweight division. A three-time NCAA Division I national champion at Penn State, he transitioned to MMA in 2021 and has built an unbeaten record. His most recent RAF appearance came in September, when he earned a decision victory over 2008 Olympic gold medalist Shirvani Gadzhikurbanovich Muradov.

Romero, 49, has had a more turbulent run since his last MMA contest in 2024. The Cuban wrestling legend — a former Olympic gold medalist and perennial UFC middleweight title contender who pushed both Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker the full distance — has since competed across multiple combat sports formats. He defeated fellow UFC veteran Thiago Santos at a PFL vs. Bellator event, but his two most recent outings ended in defeat: a loss to Darren Till in bare-knuckle boxing in September and a tech-fall defeat to Stephen Buchanan in his last RAF appearance.

The matchup pits two of the most decorated wrestlers in MMA history against each other, with Nickal representing the sport’s current generation and Romero its recent past. Whether the bout finally takes place on December 19 remains to be seen, given the history surrounding it, but both men are again officially on the card.