It’s time for the Rodney Dangerfield of MMA to seize his Back to School moment.
In fact, come UFC 130, Roy “Big Country” Nelson is going to treat Frank Mir and the entire UFC-watching public to an extra helping of special education. On May 28, the plus-sized fighter who “can’t get no respect” is finally going to get some.
A lot of online sports books have Nelson vs. Mir as even money. But the popular favorite appears to be Mir. That could be based, in many cases, on the highly scientific revelation that—hope you’re sitting down—Roy Nelson is fat.
Yep. No getting around it. Roy Nelson is fat. He’s a fat guy. Six-feet tall, 263 pounds. Insert your own beer-gut quip here.
Trust me, it’s no problem. After all, you’d just be following Nelson’s lead. This is the guy who jokes about getting Burger King after a win, proudly rocks a mullet and enters the arena to the song titled—you know it—”Fat.”
All joking aside, though, with this fight, which I believe Nelson will win (if you hadn’t already guessed that), he will finally prove himself a serious contender in the UFC’s heavyweight division. Fat and all.
Just look at his past. It’s practically “bulging” with victories, if you take my meaning. He has a “glut” of successes, if you will.
No one does or should confuse the defunct International Fight League’s heavyweight division with Pride, but Nelson still won that belt and defended it twice. In fact, no one else ever even held it.
Lots of noise these days about Brendan Schaub and his status as a rising star at heavyweight, and deservedly so. But at the same time, not so much noise about Nelson, who knocked Schaub cold to win season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter.
Admittedly, outside of Schaub, Nelson doesn’t have a “ton” of high-profile scalps on his “menu” of victories. Still, you don’t get a 15-5 professional fighting record by sitting around eating onion rings, or at least not exclusively. And even in his most recent loss, Big Country was still impressive, absorbing colossal punishment in going the distance with one Junior Dos Santos.
Know how many guys have gone the distance with Dos Santos? One. That’s right: the fat guy.
But of course, Nelson is more than a great chin. He’s a great athlete, too. He’s a jiu-jitsu black belt under Renzo Gracie. He has trained with the likes of Randy Couture. And he can throw some leather, too.
If you count his fights during The Ultimate Fighter, four of his last five wins were stoppages due to strikes. To be certain, he is a well-“round”ed competitor.
And yes, he does use his weight to his advantage at times. He can grapple opponents to the ground and smother them under his ample abdomen, to the point where they can probably almost taste the Whopper essence emanating from his pores.
Ugh, that was a gross image. Sorry.
Bottom line: Whether it’s a lack of great victories or just his physique, Roy Nelson has yet to earn acknowledgement as a legitimate force in the heavyweight division. Now, having won two of three fights in the UFC and earning two Knockout of the Night bonuses, how many Nelson victories need to come with a, “Well, but he’s fat” asterisk before he gets his due?
My answer: one. This one.
At UFC 130, Frank Mir will be the punchline, Roy Nelson will have his signature UFC win and people will finally be a little less apt to pick the pudgy guy last in the heavyweight division.
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