Eric Bischoff is no stranger to creating storylines and rivalries in the sports entertainment world, and now that he has shifted to combat sports, his promotion may have handed the UFC a massive fight.
Bischoff, one of the co-founders of Real American Freestyle, was in attendance for RAF 5 in Sunrise, Fla., with the event being capped off by a tech fall win for UFC welterweight Colby Covington over former middleweight champ Luke Rockhold. During the event’s pre-fight press conference, Covington turned his attention to Bo Nickal — who was sitting front row ahead of a scheduled match against Yoel Romero — and called the Penn State wrestling standout turned UFC middleweight a “quitter,” amongst other things, stemming from a stoppage loss to Reinier de Ridder at UFC Des Moines this past May.
Rockhold eventually jumped in against Nickal, and it created a moment that captured a lot of buzz and attention for the event and promotion.
“I’m thinking Colby’s got a mouth made for money, that’s what I’m thinking,” Bischoff told MMA Fighting. “And then look, you know the world I come from, right? I mean, I’ve spent 35 years at the highest levels in sports entertainment, both as president of WCW when we kicked WWE’s ass all over the television planet, and became the No. 1 wrestling company in the world, by changing the professional wrestling format, is how I did it.
“A lot of people are aware of the fact that I was running WCW when we basically outperformed WWE, which nobody thought was possible. I did that by changing the format and that’s exactly what I’m doing here at Real American Freestyle, and a big part of that is the characters, and you’ve got to create conflict. I mean, if you look at the reason anybody watches anything on television, it’s the drama. It’s the conflict. It’s the resolution of that conflict, and the story arc that contains it, right?
“And when you have somebody like Colby Covington, who is controversial, who says things intentionally to create drama, that’s such an important component of what we’re here to do.”
Nickal did not compete at the event after Romero missed weight for the 205-pound title unification match. Romero went on to face Steve Buchanan, losing via tech fall. Covington also ripped Nickal at the post-fight press conference for his decision to not compete against Romero at Amerant Bank Arena.
Bischoff admits that the moment between Covington, Rockhold, and Nickal drew a lot of extra curiosity for RAF 5, but if he could’ve written it up, perhaps, he would’ve done things a little differently. However, Bischoff believes the UFC and Dana White were handed a gift, as Nickal called for a fight with Covington at the upcoming UFC White House event in June.
With “Chaos” suggesting a move to middleweight following his dominant wrestling win over Rockhold, Bischoff suggests White act on what happened during the pre-fight presser between Covington and Nickal.
“The flip side of that is, sometimes it stinks, sometimes it may be, dare I say, inappropriate, but it doesn’t matter, because it works,” Bischoff explained. “And it works, because some guy I know really, really well, wrote a New York Times bestseller called ‘Controversy Creates Cash,’ and that’s what Colby did.
“So, do I wish it would have gone differently? Because I really like Bo Nickal. I don’t get impressed easily. I’ve been around the block a lot, I’ve met some very impressive people in my life, and I don’t mean to sound arrogant or anything like that, but it takes a lot to impress me. Bo Nickal impresses me as a human being, as an athlete, and I was a little disappointed for Bo because I feel the way I feel about him.
“But I’ve also listened to Bo’s comeback, and I know that Bo would love to get in the octagon with Colby. And here’s my hope, I know I’m probably speaking out of school here, but I hope Dana White’s paying attention. I heard Bo calling out Colby Covington and said let’s do it on the White House lawn. I’ll rip his limbs off. Well, I’m game. There’s your storyline right there. There’s act one. There’s act one of a three-act story. Shakespeare would love it. Let’s make that happen, Dana, come on.”
Nickal bounced back from his loss to de Ridder with a vicious head-kick knockout over Rodolfo Vieira at UFC 322 this past November.
Covington looks to make his return at the White House event in what would be his first octagon appearance since December 2024, losing via doctor’s stoppage on short notice against Joaquin Buckley in the main event of UFC Tampa. The 37-year-old is 2-4 in his past six bouts, including three championship bouts, and victories over former champ Tyron Woodley, and inaugural BMF champ Jorge Masvidal.
Despite the persona Covington exudes when the cameras are on, Bischoff said working with Covington couldn’t have gone better.
“I didn’t get to interface much with Colby,” Bischoff said. “The little I did, he was cordial. Here’s the thing, he was professional as hell. … I saw a guy behind the scenes that was a true, 100 percent professional. I saw a guy doing a press conference that was doing what guys like Colby do, which is stirring up interest, creating controversy, creating drama, so that at some point, there will be a resolution.
“And I think that resolution will come, whether it’s in UFC or Real American Freestyle. It’s going to happen eventually.”
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