Never one to shy away from his own thoughts Roy Nelson had plenty to say this past Wednesday as he addressed a group of media members at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
The boisterous heavyweight talked about his ongoing beef with UFC boss Dana White, what he thinks of Shane Carwin’s coaching ability on the latest edition of The Ultimate Fighter, and why he wants to be the first heavyweight to push MMA’s drug testing policies.
The first question out of the gate concerned why White and Nelson were having more words for one another on the 16th installment of TUF than the two coaches were.
“I think me and Dana are gonna fight, I think I even offered. We’ll handle it like men, like everybody else,” Nelson told the group of reporters gathered at the same property that plays host to the TUF finale on Dec. 15.
“But at the end of the day, Dec. 15th I’m fighting Shane Carwin. He’s going to settle his beef with me and I’m gonna squash the juice with him. Pretty much if the fight happens, it happens.”
A media member pressed Nelson as to why his latest feuding with White seems more volatile than usual.
“I guess I’ve just stolen the thunder from Dana and Dana likes to be the front man and it’s switching,” Nelson said. “I don’t know, maybe there is a switch of power or something. Dana says he loves me, he hates me, he says it all. I’m confused. And all I want to do is eat because it just puts me in a depression.”
But that was just the beginning of Nelson’s sarcasm as the Las Vegas native later opined that he really wasn’t good enough to be in the Octagon with Shane Carwin, but isn’t so sure the engineer from Colorado will be the one he actually fights on Dec. 15.
“Maybe the fight is gonna be just like how it is on TV: I coach, he doesn’t,” Nelson said, getting a rise out of a handful of reporters. “I was told ‘Hey guess who is gonna coach against you? And I thought it was gonna be Shane Carwin, but instead its Trevor Wittman.’ So I guess I’m fighting Trevor on Dec. 15.”
In the select moments where the bushy bearded Nelson was serious, his attention turned to helping clean up the sport, claiming he and Carwin have agreed to VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency) testing procedures.
“We’re always trying to create new boundaries and new lines, that’s why we’re going to be the first heavyweights to do VADA,” said Nelson, who is coming off a first-round knockout of Dave Herman at UFC 146 in May.
“I think all fighters should do it. I’m just looking to just make sure that whoever I fight from now on, has to be on the same playing field. You’re gonna have to be the man that has to be the better fighter that beats me, not because you’re stickin’ it in your ass.”
While Nelson said he’s not personally scared to fight guys who might be jacked up on illegal substances — saying he’s had plenty of bouts with guys using performance enhancers — he wants to help “level the playing field” across the sport.
“I know a bunch of guys (who I’ve fought have been on something). That’s when the tell-all book will come out. I’ll be like Jose Canseco, but the difference is I’m clean,” joked Nelson, the winner of TUF No. 10.
“If I knew you were on the juice or doing something wrong, I just wanted to basically for my own morals, I just beat a guy who was sticking it in (he said pretending to jam a fake syringe in his backside). He wasn’t the better fighter, he was the guy who cheated. I got off on that.
“But now that we’re in the business aspect and we’re in the fight business, it’s a dog-eat-dog world and now that my wife is pregnant — now you’re taking money from my kid. Now it’s a business aspect and I just want everyone to be level. Either I can juice, or you can make everybody not juice. It’s either one or the other. I don’t care really which it is. I just need to know what the rules are so I can play by the rules and make everybody level.”
But even during his serious conversation about drug testing, “Big Country” couldn’t resist taking a final shot at White and UFC brass.
“I actually got it (VADA) sponsored, so Dana doesn’t have to talk about sponsorship no more. I got it handled,” Nelson said. “The UFC didn’t want to do it, so I went out of my way and got sponsors involved. Me and Shane are going to be covered by this. So the UFC doesn’t have to pay for it, so it’s good for them.
“I know that athletic commissions can only do so much. The only people who can do it are nonprofits, apparently. Stupid can’t fix stupid. But if a nonprofit can do it, then a profit company certainly can.”