According to Roy “Big Country” Nelson, “It’s on!” If you are wondering exactly what “it” is, well, “it” would be a fight with Daniel Cormier.
Before you get too excited about this talk, please keep in mind that Nelson is without an active UFC contract. Nelson, the winner of Season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter, saw his deal expire with his last fight—a unanimous decision defeat to Stipe Miocic at UFC 161.
The beef between Nelson and Cormier came to life when Nelson told Bleacher Report’s Damon Martin that he thought Cormier had turned down a fight with him at UFC 161. That comment didn’t sit well with Cormier, who responded via UFC Tonight, “I want Roy Nelson. I want to kick his ass. I want to kick his ass for Dana White.”
Things got a little more interesting when Nelson, speaking to Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com, said that wanting to fight him for UFC president White, was, “You know, having a lot of black friends, they would say that would be more of an Uncle Tom move.”
Nelson’s “It’s on!” reply on his Facebook page came shortly after Cormier told MMAFighting, “Roy and I still have some unfinished business,” and that he wanted the fight in Houston on the UFC 166 fight card.
Cormier (12-0) is coming off a unanimous-decision victory over Frank Mir in his last bout, his UFC debut. Cormier and Nelson (19-8) are both ranked in the Top 10 in the UFC heavyweight division. Cormier is ranked second, behind former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos. Nelson holds the seventh spot in the rankings.
UFC 166 will take place at Houston’s Toyota Center on October 19 and will be headlined by a heavyweight title bout. Champion, and Cormier teammate at American Kickboxing Academy, Cain Velasquez will put his title on the line against Dos Santos.
Velasquez recently took to Twitter to hype his fight a bit and included Cormier in his build up:
Now, about that pesky contract for Nelson, can we get that out of the way and make this fight happen?
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