UFC middleweight star Bo Nickal’s recent withdrawal from Real American Freestyle 5 has one legendary combatant extremely concerned.

Bo Nickal has had an eventful last year in combat sports.

Nickal, a blue-chip middleweight MMA prospect and Dana White’s Contender Series alum, is also considered one of the greatest collegiate wrestlers in NCAA history. He was scheduled to wrestle with former UFC title challenger Yoel Romero at Real American Freestyle 5 before Romero missed weight, and Nickal refused to book a catchweight bout.

Nickal’s decision came after a head-kick knockout at UFC 322 in November, a bounce-back performance after a knockout loss to Reinier de Ridder last year at UFC Des Moines. After withdrawing from the wrestling match against Romero, many fight fans scolded Nickal on social media.

One legendary former UFC standout believes Nickal’s withdrawal from RAF might be the symptom of a larger issue.

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.