MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota national champion Max McEnelly will make his debut within Real American Freestyle later this summer at RAF12, it was announced Monday night.
McEnelly, who took home the 184-pound title this past season, is scheduled to compete against Bo Nickal in a Light Heavyweight matchup on August 22 in Cleveland, Ohio. The event will be held at Rocket Arena, the same venue where McEnelly won his title, and will be streamed on FoxNation (subscription required).
En route to his championship, McEnelly finished the 2025-26 season with a 24-2 record, including a 15-1 record in duals, a perfect 8-0 mark during the Big Ten regular season and a 15-2 record versus ranked competition. Twelve of his 24 victories were by tech fall, and two more came by major decision. He became the 19th different Gopher to win a national title, and it was the 25th individual championship overall in program history. McEnelly was the first Gopher to win a national title at 184 pounds, and he captured the first title overall for the program since Gable Steveson went back-to-back at heavyweight in 2021-22.
Nickal was a three-time national champion at Penn State from 2016-19, winning twice at 184 pounds and once at 197. He is 1-0 all-time in the RAF and won the inaugural Light Heavyweight title, but vacated it due to a move up in weight classes. In addition, Nickal has competed in 10 professional mixed martial arts matches, sporting a 9-1 record.
McEnelly will be the second with Gopher ties to compete in the promotion, as Steveson scored a 10-0 tech fall over Alexander Romanov at RAF09 in May.
Launched in August of 2025, Real American Freestyle consists of eight weight classes on the men’s side and three on the women’s. Each match consists of three two-minute periods, with a modified scoring system that resembles the formats of United World Wrestling and USA Wrestling. Points can be earned for actions like takedowns (2 points), stepouts (1), exposure from standing (4-5), exposure from the ground (2), reversals (1), and more. Matches can be won by fall, tech fall (10-point lead), disqualification or injury time. Click here for more information on the rules.
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