Roy “Big Country” Nelson must not know the difference between a full-nelson and a half-nelson.He must not know that one is an illegal hold in folkstyle and Olympic-style wrestling, but is allowed in catch and professional entertainment wres…
Roy “Big Country” Nelson must not know the difference between a full-nelson and a half-nelson.
He must not know that one is an illegal hold in folkstyle and Olympic-style wrestling, but is allowed in catch and professional entertainment wrestling. (Yours truly is uncertain if it’s legal in the UFC as it is technically a neck crank.)
His consecutive losses to Junior Dos Santos and then to Frank Mir last Saturday night in UFC 130 must suffice as a wake-up call.
And no, I won’t add anything to the discussion about whether he is best off fighting as light-heavyweight or not.
Or if he should cut his whoppers diet to lose the horizontal outgrowth from his waist, which he claims to give him a massive advantage or two.
Whatever Nelson’s diet or best weight class is, it’s high time to amp his training in the world’s oldest competitive sport: wrestling. (Yup, as posted on the official website of the International Olympic Committee itself.)
Striking? Check, blessed with KO power—though not as polished as Dos Santos or Alistair Overeem.
Grappling? Check, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt who defeated Mir in a national grappling competition years ago.
Wrestling? Maybe the same level as his punk-rocking counterpart.
From mohawk to mullet, welterweight to heavyweight.
I’d really love to see Nelson wrestle down his opponent and see the power of his punches when he ground-and-pounds!
But last Saturday night, especially in the latter half of the fight, I thought average wrestler Frank Mir was actually Georges St-Pierre taking down his opponent with impunity.
*By “wrestling dummy,” I mean the training equipment.
I think we have Manny Pacquiao’s future MMA equivalent lurking here somewhere…for those interested in Philippine MMA, check out here the official Web site of our country’s premier MMA organization, the Universal Reality Combat Championship and our top MMA online forum at PinoyMMA.com.
When you think of Brian Stann you think of an American hero. A decorated Marine turned Mixed Martial Artist. When you think of top Middleweight contenders, you do not think of Brian Stann.I however believe that Stann is very underrated among his peers….
When you think of Brian Stann you think of an American hero. A decorated Marine turned Mixed Martial Artist. When you think of top Middleweight contenders, you do not think of Brian Stann.
I however believe that Stann is very underrated among his peers. Stann deserves a challenging opponent to see how he fits in with other legitimate fighters.
Stann was the light heavyweight champion in the UFC’s sister organization WEC. He has defeated Steve Cantwell twice, and just knocked out Jorge Santiago, and he crippled the crippler Chris Leben.
He asked for Chris Leben! He said he was not afraid like most people are and he knocked out Leben.
Stann is thriving very well in the UFC and he should get a shot at someone like Nate the Great or even Yushin Okami.
Stann is tough as nails and he shows that he can take a punch and that he can dish them out as well. With three losses in his MMA career it’s time to see what this man is really made of.
Stann has proved he can put on a good show and he can beat some of the best. The “All American” needs to be tested by a worthy Middleweight.
At various times in his UFC career, Matt Hamill’s wrestling has been described by UFC personalities as elite, Olympic-level, and world-class. Among his wrestling achievements are a gold medal, and two national wrestling championships. After…
At various times in his UFC career, Matt Hamill‘s wrestling has been described by UFC personalities as elite, Olympic-level, and world-class. Among his wrestling achievements are a gold medal, and two national wrestling championships. After watching Quinton Jackson easily stuff all of Hamill’s takedown attempts, it’s safe to say his abilities as a wrestler were overrated.
But if you’ve been paying any attention, you’ll know that they always were overrated.
Matt Hamill was a Division III wrestling champion. It’s not like he was ever the best wrestler in his weight class, or even the third best.
There are two whole bigger and better divisions above Division III.
Matt Hamill may not even be a national-level wrestler, let alone a world-class one.
Hamill never wrestled at the Olympics.
He wrestled and won his medals at the Deaflympics. That’s a far smaller pool of talent in America, let alone the rest of the world where resources spent on handicapped athletes are far more limited.
Not to take away from what Hamill has achieved as a wrestler and MMA fighter, but his credentials simply don’t stack up as elite or world class, and to say so is simply lying.
In that respect, UFC promoters and personalities like Joe Rogan should take some of the blame for hyping up Matt Hamill as this elite wrestler who could possibly beat Rampage Jackson.
But as promoters and hype generators, this is their job.
It’s not their job to point out that even if Hamill’s wrestling was on that elite level, Jackson has already held his own against elite wrestlers in the past, like Kevin Randleman, Dan Henderson, and Matt Lindland.
In this case, the UFC threw us a bone and told us as much anyway.
It takes about 5 seconds to run a Google search and find Matt Hamill’s Wikipedia entry.
Any MMA fans who were shocked or disappointed in Hamill’s efforts have only themselves to blame for being lazy and getting themselves overhyped over a match where the final outcome of victory and defeat was about as predictable as they come.
“And at least I know I’m free, and I won’t forget the men who died, that gave that right to me…”On a weekend every American should take time to reflect and give thanks to the men and women who sacrifice everything for their homeland, Brian Stann prov…
“And at least I know I’m free, and I won’t forget the men who died, that gave that right to me…”
On a weekend every American should take time to reflect and give thanks to the men and women who sacrifice everything for their homeland, Brian Stann proved that being American is the ultimate honor.
Memorial Day weekend 2011 is a little more special this year than many others, though. This year, Americans around the country can be especially proud of the work done in the last month that lifted a huge burden off the minds of those directly and indirectly affected by September 11, 2001, a day that is etched in the hearts of every American forever.
This year on Memorial Day, Patriots around the globe can be thankful for the covert mission accomplished earlier this May that killed Osama bin Laden. It is because of Marines, and ex-Marines, Air Force pilots, and ex-Air Force pilots, Army members, and ex-Army members, and the list goes on and on, that we can celebrate our freedom.
Stann’s win over Jorge Santiago was bigger than himself. It was a symbol of this weekend. It is freedom.
“And I’ll gladly stand up, next to you, and defend her still today, ’cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land, GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.”
Following last night’s main event at UFC 130: Rampage vs. Hamill, fans were quick to blame Quinton Jackson for putting on what can only be described as a lackluster main event. But is it really Rampage’s fault?Jackson dominated the fight by using super…
Following last night’s main event at UFC 130: Rampage vs. Hamill, fans were quick to blame Quinton Jackson for putting on what can only be described as a lackluster main event. But is it really Rampage’s fault?
Jackson dominated the fight by using superior boxing and defensive wrestling. As the third round was winding down, Joe Rogan said something like, “I can’t imagine a world in which Rampage didn’t win the first two rounds.”
And he’s right.
Hamill never had a chance.
But that’s also why the fight was so lackluster.
Much like UFC 129’s main event with St-Pierre against Shields, once it became clear that Hamill had almost no way to win, the fight became very boring to watch. There was no suspense, and the only thing we had to look forward to was Hamill getting knocked out.
When that didn’t happen, it was a big letdown.
But it’s not like Rampage wasn’t trying to knock Hamill out, and it’s not like he gassed himself out doing nothing.
He swung for the fences and tired himself out doing so.
Hamill himself is partly to blame for not taking bigger risks, but it’s hard to blame him when he probably just would have been knocked out for his effort.
It’s also hard to blame the UFC for marketing the main event when they had no better option after Edgar and Maynard pulled out.
If you’re one of the fans out there complaining about the main event, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
If you were buying UFC 130 for the main event, you really weren’t thinking properly.
The main event wasn’t the best reason to buy the card.
UFC 130 featured a whole host of fights that looked interesting and competitive on paper.
MMA fighters aren’t fighting just for your entertainment. They fight to win, and if they’re going to lose, they’re still going to try to avoid getting knocked out or injured because injury suspensions cost fighters money, and concussions can lead to a lower quality of life.
In order for MMA to move forward as a sport, the MMA fanbase needs to be one that watches because of the competitive aspects of the sport, not the theatrical ones.
UFC 130 lacked the drama and the grudges surrounding many high-profile UFC events, but it still was an event featuring a ton of high caliber fighters in competitive bouts.
It turns out that some of those fights weren’t all that exciting, but as they say, sometimes these things happen in MMA.
Last night at UFC 130, Roy Nelson got manhandled, wrestled, and physically dominated by Frank Mir.This isn’t the first time Nelson has been manhandled by a bigger and more powerful heavyweight, and if Nelson continues to fight at heavyweight, it won’t …
This isn’t the first time Nelson has been manhandled by a bigger and more powerful heavyweight, and if Nelson continues to fight at heavyweight, it won’t be the last.
It’s time for Roy Nelson to seriously consider a drop down to the 205 pound division.
Despite Nelson’s quick dismissal of the possibility, it would be quite possible for him to make the 205 pound weight limit.
Roy Nelson is Not Too Big For 205
When somebody asks Roy Nelson if he could make 205, he usually responds with something like “yeah, I could make 205 if I cut off my leg,” to try to display how insane he thinks the idea is.
However, if you look at Nelson’s body, it should be quite easy to see that Nelson’s frame isn’t too big for 205 pounds. In fact, he should probably be fighting at 185 pounds like Tim Boetsch.
If you ever see professional fighters in person, you’ll understand what I mean.
In person, most fighters look much larger than their actual weigh in weights. Dominick Cruz, the UFC 135 pound champion, has about the same frame as your average in-shape guy who walks around at 170 pounds.
Georges St-Pierre is a rock solid 190 pounds, but would be over 200 pounds if he wasn’t in such incredible shape.
Guys like Chuck Liddell and Quinton Jackson are hulking human specimens with absurd amounts of muscle.
If Nelson even got into the kind of physical condition that Liddell is in, he’d easily make 205 pounds and could probably make 185 pounds if he took the weight cut seriously like most other MMA fighters do.
If you sawed off the part of Nelson’s gut that hangs over his shorts, you’d probably already have him down to 230 pounds. A good weight cut after that, and he’d easily make the 205 pound limit.
Unfortunately, Nelson is probably to stubborn to actually do so.
Reasons Why Roy Nelson Doesn’t Want To Cut Down To 205 Pounds
In order to make the 205 pound limit, Nelson would be forced to eat in a healthy manner.
That means no more Burger King diet.
It would also mean that he’d have to train a bit harder, and probably seek out some good advice from somebody like Mike Dolce on how to cut weight properly.
Roy Nelson is probably too lazy to do those things.
He’d also probably have to deal with having loose skin as a result from losing all that excess weight.
One real competitive reason Nelson might want to stay at heavyweight is because it’s the weakest division. The fighters simply aren’t as good at heavyweight, and Nelson might have trouble competing with a deeper 205 pound division.
The other big reason Nelson might hesitate is that he might not want to give up his gimick of being the fat guy who can fight. There is a certain appeal to being that guy that sets him apart from other fighters. If Nelson moves to 205, he becomes just another ordinary fighter.
Roy Nelson’s Delusions
Instead of realizing that he’s too fat and needs to slim down, Nelson instead went the other way after the fight, hinting that he needs to get “bigger, faster, stronger.”
But if Nelson gets bigger, he’s certainly not getting faster, and he’s only going to get weaker as he gasses out even earlier into fights.
Aside from that delusion, Nelson also brushed off the loss stating that it was really only wrestling that won Mir the decision and that the striking was even, if not in Nelson’s favor.
Nelson is wrong about that as well, but even if he wasn’t, there’s no getting around the fact that he was out-struck badly by Junior Dos Santos in his last fight, and out-hustled by Mir in this one.
But Isn’t Nelson’s Belly An Advantage
On the TUF reality series, we saw that when Nelson gets on top of somebody, his belly can help pin his opponent down.
But whatever advantage he gains from that position is vastly outweighed by the disadvantage that comes from being slow and out of shape.
Could Nelson Become A Smaller Heavyweight?
Cain Velasquez and Fedor Emelianenko are both small and extremely successful heavyweights.
Fedor Emelianenko has approximately the same frame as Nelson. If Nelson got down to around 225 pounds, he could still fight at heavyweight, and would possibly still have more quickness and mobility than some of the larger plodding heavyweights.
Conclusion
The “Fat Fighter” experiment should be over.
We’ve seen how good of a fighter a fat Roy Nelson is, and while he’s a decent fighter, he’s certainly not a great one.
So if Nelson stays fat, he’ll win some, lose some, and will remembered only as “that fat fighter.”
If Nelson loses some serious weight, he risks losing his fat man gimmick.
Still, losing some serious weight is Nelson’s only chance of being anything but another also-ran in the UFC heavyweight division.
Roy “Big Country” Nelson must not know the difference between a full-nelson and a half-nelson.