Tag: Roy Nelson

Heavy hands are going to be thrown when Roy Nelson and Daniel Cormier step into the Octagon at UFC 166 on Oct. 10, but bombs of the verbal variety are already being launched. While the two heavyweights are set to collide next month in Houston, the “war of the words” is well under way.

In the tactical strategy/mind games department, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner intends to file a complaint with the Texas Athletic Commission about “Big Country’s” grizzly beard. He will request the commission make Nelson trim his facial hair before the fight. The former The Ultimate Fighter winner’s beard is the 36-year-old’s signature look, but Cormier believes it could cause issues if the fight moves into close quarters.

When the brick-handed Las Vegas native was asked to share his feelings about Cormier‘s complaint by Ariel Helwani on UFC Tonight, Nelson used the platform to lob a nuke in “D.C.’s” direction—and his response ratcheted up the intensity in the trash-talk category.

“If this beard is giving me an unfair advantage like Cormier is claiming,” Nelson said via Helwani, “then he should have had a beard when he failed in the Olympics back in 2008 and 2004.”

When informed of the heavyweight knockout artist’s jab, Cormier upped the ante on his original stance.

“Alright, at first I was going to ask him to trim the beard,” the Louisiana native said. “Now, he really pissed me off and now I want all of it off.”

While the two fighters have exchanged barbs in the past, Nelson’s latest remarks on Wednesday night took aim at a personal sore spot for Cormier. Despite his success as a wrestler on the collegiate and Olympic levels, one of the most disappointing moments in the AKA-trained fighter’s athletic career came in the 2008 games.

Despite being named team captain and coming into Beijing with high expectations, Cormier suffered complications (dehydration and kidney failure) during his weight cut and was forced to withdraw. The situation has haunted him for years, and Nelson attacking the subject will ensure the friction between them will increase in the buildup to their collision at UFC 166. 

It will be interesting to see how the Texas Athletic Commission handles Cormier‘s compliant in regard to Nelson’s beard. Whether the commission will make Nelson lose the beard entirely remains to be seen, but with his response to the matter at hand on Wednesday night, it’s clear Big Country doesn’t care for Cormier making an issue out of anything that doesn’t involve their direct fight.

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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Let’s take stock of Daniel Cormier’s short but highly accomplished career as a mixed martial artist.

Five years ago, with a frustrated attempt at Olympic wrestling behind him, he took his first steps into the sport and began his meteoric rise to become the No. 3 heavyweight in the world.

In that time, he would walk through every opponent put in front of him, capturing the highly competitive and much-hyped Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix title before entering the UFC as a highly touted prospect.

Of course, he already had the base of an accomplished athlete behind him, carrying the skills of a wrestler which have so often fast-tracked potential mixed martial artists to the top of the sport. So while his achievements in MMA in just 12 undefeated fights have caught the imagination, the foundation for that success was laid long before he set foot inside the cage.

What’s more, he isn’t the first athlete to have reached the top of the game in such a short space of time. Jon Jones, for example, was the UFC’s light heavyweight champion in just 14 fights. Cain Velasquez, Cormier’s training partner at AKA, was heavyweight champion in just nine fights.

Both those men sit at the top of the sport with only one career loss behind them. Cormier has none.

On October 19, at UFC 166, the former Olympian is expected to face Roy Nelson. It’s a fight Cormier has already decided will be his last in the 265-pound division.

That fact, added to his as yet flawless record, makes this a no-lose situation for him. Like some of his contemporaries, one loss in a 12-fight winning streak will do little to dent his cachet—especially against such a dangerous and heavy-handed opponent like “Big Country.”

It’s true that in his last fight against Frank Mir, a match he won convincingly by decision, his performance was far from electric, and already the knives were out to denigrate him as a lesser talent than many thought.

But Mir, ranked sixth among the UFC’s heavyweights, is still a tough challenge—as is seventh-ranked Nelson.

And, considering that his sights are set on dropping down to 205 pounds, there’s little he has to gain by stamping his authority on the heavyweight decision in his last fight there.

Instead, a tantalising match between Cormier and Jones in the division below is already in the cards. The personal animosity between the two has been steadily growing and UFC president Dana White has shown his support for the contest.

Should Cormier lose against Nelson, then it’s possible that he won’t be parachuted into a 205-pound title shot against Jones as he is expected to. The light heavyweight champion may have all but cleared out the division (and he himself is facing a tough opponent in Alexander Gustafsson later in the year), but there is still Glover Teixeira waiting in the wings for his shot.

Teixeira is getting ready to face Ryan Bader in September, and it’s conceivable that should he win convincingly, and should Cormier lose, then the Brazilian could leapfrog into the contender’s spot.

However, it wouldn’t be unprecedented to see Cormier given the nod even coming off a loss. Recall Chael Sonnen’s instant title shot at 205 pounds after his loss to Anderson Silva in the middleweight division.

But even if he does have to wait and prove himself at light heavyweight before being lined up for a title fight, it won’t take more than one fight in the division to see him rushed through to a championship contest.

Realistically, Cormier has everything to play for and not much to lose.

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