Roy Nelson and Dana White have never had the best relationship.
In fact, it was likely that relationship that forced Nelson to go through the Ultimate Fighter house in order to get into the UFC in the first place. Nelson was a heavyweight with great credentials and plenty of talent, and yet he was forced to do the reality show and prove himself against fighters with barely 1/10th of his fighting experience.
Nelson is a quirky dude. I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now. He rarely gives straight answers to serious questions and always seems to have an agenda. So you can see why he irks White at every turn, because White likes it when fighters “play the game.”
Nelson never plays the game. Even after being chosen to coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, Nelson refuses to fall in line. In fact, he’s turning up his crazy vibe to levels we haven’t seen him reach during his UFC tenure.
Check out this tweet Nelson sent out on Monday evening:
The Juice is good @danawhite says so as long as you don’t over do it Retweet @ufc . Now I know why Overeem is OK… fb.me/IP37wRgc
— Roy Nelson (@roynelsonmma) August 7, 2012
We’ve seen White’s position on TRT change courses over the last few weeks. And by “changing courses,” I mean “completely reversed.”
Here’s White talking to ESPN one month ago during UFC 148 fight week:
WHITE: So, to me, the bottom line is you don’t need that junk. If you don’t abuse stuff younger in your career, you’ll never need to use that junk.”
TODD GRISHAM: “So, if it up to you, it would be illegal, if you were making the call?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah.”
And then last weekend, White said this to Fox Sports:
Here’s the thing about TRT. It’s absolutely 100% legal. As sports medicine continues to advance, this is one of those things where every guy’s testosterone level starts to drop as they get older and this is basically sports science now where they can bring it back up to a normal level.
And I think it’s great, it’s absolutely fair, it’s legal. The problem is, there are guys who say if this much is good THIS MUCH must be great, so you have guys who are always trying to do more than they’re supposed to do. The big job is policing it, making sure that it’s not being abused, that guys are using it the way it’s supposed to be used.
Yes, White’s position has seemingly changed—and drastically so—inside of a month. And that should be pointed out, but Nelson probably isn’t the best person to be doing the pointing. Not if he wants to keep his job anyway.
But this is just the latest in a string of silly Nelson incidents over the past few weeks. If you’ll recall, Nelson famously tried to get Victor Conte and Kurt Angle as part of his coaching staff for The Ultimate Fighter, but was denied by the UFC.
Nelson knew that Zuffa would deny both of those men spots on the show—and for good reason—but he still insisted on trying to get them installed as assistants and then made the information public. He’s essentially needling his boss in the public eye, and his boss is a man who doesn’t take kindly to needling, especially when it involves one of the more sensitive subjects affecting the sport.
White also recently said that Nelson has been a “huge pain in the ass” since filming for the newest edition of the reality show started. I’m not sure what he’s trying to accomplish, but one thing is for sure: I would not be surprised, in the slightest, if Nelson finds himself without a job if he loses to Shane Carwin when they square off in December.
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