With The Ultimate Fighter 16 set to begin filming, Roy Nelson is not, shall we say, making things easy on the UFC.
“Big Country,” who will coach opposite heavyweight Shane Carwin on the show, claims the UFC has denied him from using several combat sports personalities as assistant coaches on the upcoming season of the show.
Former Strikeforce fighter turned Bellator and TNA Wrestling star Muhammed Lawal, pro wrestling legend Kurt Angle and Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO Laboratories, are “non-UFC allowed,” according to Nelson. Nelson’s manager Mike Kogan confirmed with MMAFighting.com that the UFC will not allow the trio to appear on the show.
Nelson posted on his Web site page the list of “UFC allowed” personalities that he will call upon to help him out on TUF 16. The list includes: Royce Gracie, James Johnson, Jeff Mayweather, George St-Pierre, Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, Chael Sonnen, Jake Shields, Gilbert Melendez, Martin Kampmann, Amir Sadollah, Mike Pyle, Gray Maynard, Ron Frazier, Anthony Brown.
“I am a student first, teacher second,” Nelson wrote. “(Let’s) give (these) kids an opportunity of a lifetime.”
Kogan said Nelson has scheduled appearances for all the fighters listed above, but it remains to be seen whether they will all appear on the show.
Nelson and Carwin have been verbally sparring on Twitter this week, however, they deleted many of their controversial tweets days later.
TUF 16 will begin airing on FX in September.