Roy Nelson is a fan favorite. He is articulate, funny and has a crowd-pleasing fighting style. However, he only has one win in his last five bouts.
Has Nelson thrown in the towel on being a top-tier heavyweight?
Nelson was a noted grappler before he became known for his knockout power. It was seen as wise to stand and exchange with the heavyweight. He then started to catch fans’ eyes when he was knocking out his opposition in the IFL before making the move to the UFC through The Ultimate Fighter.
After winning the 10th season of the show, Nelson moved into a significant tilt against Stefan Struve. Another KO win. Then the UFC pitted him against Junior dos Santos at UFC 117, where he was beaten for 15 minutes. That served as an eye-opener. Sure he had KO power, but he was still out of his depths against the upper echelon of strikers.
Virtually every time Nelson has tried to take that next step up the ladder, he has been defeated. He has taken a lot of punishment in the process.
The question of Nelson giving up is not posed because of the losses. He has taken on elite competition. The question arises because Nelson has made little to no strides in improving, and his tactics in the cage are highly questionable.
Much has always been made about Nelson’s physique. Nelson embraced it. He started coming out to Weird Al Yankovic’s “I’m Fat” for his fights. However, it is hard to imagine that, over the years, he would not have dedicated the time in the gym to become more fit and reach the next level.
Having a slim physique is overrated in the Octagon, but in most of his losses, he was at a clear physical disadvantage. His punching was slower, he did not have the ability to quickly change levels for a takedown and he struggled to keep pace with his opponent.
Take a gander at his FightMetric profile.
Nelson landed only 23 significant strikes over the course of three rounds against both Stipe Miocic and Alistair Overeem, with his round-by-round numbers falling significantly after the first frame. For all of his power, Nelson’s striking accuracy stands at only 33 percent. He is tough as nails, but even though he keeps walking forward, his output is dropping quickly.
The most glaring reason this question comes up is his performance against Mark Hunt.
Hunt is a stellar striker, but his ground game is awful. He has fallen victim to the most basic of submissions by the lower end of the talent pool. He has shown some defensive improvement in recent fights, but once the fight hits the turf, it should be game over against someone like Nelson.
But it wasn’t.
For all of Nelson’s grappling acumen, he wasn’t able to keep Hunt down on the mat. The “Super Samoan” defended all three first-round takedown attempts and two of three in the second round. Hunt was even a bit tired in the second when Nelson completed the lone takedown of the fight.
In Nelson’s career, he’s only 15 percent accurate on takedowns. That is horrendous for a grappler.
Nelson may be eyeing bigger things. He has taken up acting. Maybe that’s a good thing, because what is happening to his career inside the cage is not very fun to watch.
A fighter with a very solid, well-rounded skill set has been reduced to a haymaker-throwing heavyweight who is really only good for three minutes of action. If the fight goes beyond that mark, we are often treated to watching him lose brain cells as a punching bag.
At some point over the last couple of years, we should have seen some kind of improvement, but we have not.
I love Nelson, but I am not sure he is even trying anymore.
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