NCAA champ McEnelly takes on UFC fighter, PSU great Nickal at RAF 12
Max McEnelly just won a national championship. Now he wants Bo Nickal.
The University of Minnesota standout claimed the 2026 NCAA title at 184 pounds and barely paused to celebrate before setting his sights on the sport's biggest crossover name. McEnelly will face Bo Nickal in a light heavyweight freestyle bout at Real American Freestyle Wrestling's RAF 12 on Aug. 22 in Cleveland, Ohio, streaming exclusively on Fox Nation. RAF officials announced the pairing on Monday.
McEnelly's path to that championship was built on a foundation that goes back long before college. A four-time Minnesota state champion in high school, he arrived at the University of Minnesota with enormous expectations and immediately delivered -- earning All-American honors as a redshirt freshman and taking home Big Ten Freshman of the Year. His sophomore season elevated him into the national conversation, and he closed it out the only way that matters: winning the 2026 NCAA title at 184 pounds with a finals victory over Penn State's Rocco Welsh. He didn't just win in 2026. He went out and earned it. And now, with the gold still fresh, he's choosing to prove himself in the hardest possible way -- against the most decorated wrestler-turned-fighter in the sport.
That would be Nickal, the three-time Penn State NCAA champion who has spent the last several years making wrestling fans out of MMA crowds and MMA fans out of wrestling crowds. RAF 12 marks his return to the mat -- and a homecoming of sorts, as he competed at the very first RAF card in August 2025, defeating Jacob Cardenas in his first wrestling match since falling short of making the 2020 Olympic team. A highly anticipated rematch with Olympic silver medalist and fellow MMA star Yoel Romero was booked for a subsequent RAF event but never came to fruition after Romero missed weight. Now, fresh off a first-round knockout of Kyle Daukaus on the White House South Lawn at UFC Freedom 250, Nickal is back on the wrestling mat for RAF's first anniversary card -- and he's walking into a fight that won't be easy.
McEnelly's willingness to step in against him is telling. This isn't a matchup a cautious athlete takes. It's the kind of fight a champion seeks out -- one that answers the questions a college bracket never can. The card also features former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley taking on Joaquin Buckley, with the full lineup still coming together.
@NoBickal the contract is signed on my end, stop pushing it back and let's make it happen @RAFWrestlingUSA in Milwaukee. You're the one who wanted it...
— max mcenelly (@MaxMcenelly) June 18, 2026
McEnelly knows what he is. RAF 12 is where he gets to show everyone else.
Cleveland. Aug. 22. Fox Nation. The 2026 NCAA champion is just getting started.