President Donald Trump, 80, proudly claimed he is in comparable physical shape to a professional MMA fighter 50 years his junior.
During a speech at a Mack Truck facility in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, the president introduced a special guest who was involved in “the highest-rated fight show ever in the history of television,” and seemingly implied that he could take him on mano a mano.
“This guy... I’m thinking, you know, I’m a similar size. I’m—actually, I weigh more than he does, actually, so, therefore, I have a tremendous physical advantage over him," Trump said about 30-year-old MMA fighter Bo Nickal. “His muscles are slightly harder and slightly younger—he’s a lot younger. But I think I can do it because I’m a great athlete.“
“He knows I’m a very good golfer,” the octogenarian added. “And, uh, I’m much better off on the golf course against him than I am on the wrestling mat.”
Nickal stands at 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs 186 pounds, according to ESPN. Trump’s latest physical examination at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center showed that the president was 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 238 pounds, having gained 14 pounds since April 2025.
“But he went virtually undefeated—I mean, he went four years, he was the top wrestler," Trump said, singing the fighter’s praises. “Bo Nickal went... I mean, you couldn’t defeat the guy.”
The White House did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment on Trump’s remarks.
Nickal, a wrestling specialist, fought at the president’s 80th birthday brawl at the White House on June 14, defeating Kyle Daukaus by KO/TKO in the first round.
Meanwhile, concerns over Trump’s deteriorating mental and physical health have dominated his second administration.
As the Daily Beast has reported on exhaustively, the president has exhibited a laundry list of worrying ailments, including his frequently bruised hands, his puffy cankles, his public sleeping fits, his bouts of confusion, and his slurred speech, among others.
Trump’s administration has downplayed the severity of his health concerns, blaming his bruised hands on “frequent handshaking” and his excessive daily aspirin regimen.
Following his chronic venous insufficiency diagnosis last year, the president rejected his treatment plan of wearing compression socks because he “didn’t like them,” he told The Wall Street Journal in a report published in January.
Trump is also no stranger to fawning over other powerful men much younger than he is.
During the G7 summit last week, the octogenarian president called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi “angelic” and “the most beautiful-looking man.” Earlier in the month, the president called out a burly attendee in the front row of his speech as “one hell of a specimen.”
