Gather ’round, children. Gather ’round. The Church of Roy is now in session.We all know Roy Nelson well by now. Scorned by many, loved by more. A hero to all his beer-bellied, burger-bombing, bird-nest-bearded brethren around this great land of ours.Bu…
Gather ’round, children. Gather ’round. The Church of Roy is now in session.
We all know Roy Nelson well by now. Scorned by many, loved by more. A hero to all his beer-bellied, burger-bombing, bird-nest-bearded brethren around this great land of ours.
But it’s more than just the fact that he’s a successful professional pugilist in a bowling league body. There’s also the fact that he’s weird and annoying. To make that many enemies, to succeed almost in spite of oneself, takes some seriously thick skin—no pun intended.
It’s the most inspiring mess I’ve ever seen in a man this side of The Big Lebowski. There may be something wrong with Roy Nelson. And something so right.
He’s also fighting fellow weirdo Matt Mitrione this Saturday at the finale of the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter. Nelson was going to fight Shane Carwin, a big, serious, muscle-bound dude who thoroughly disapproved of Roy and his slovenly, devil-may-care lifestyle. Carwin was going to teach Roy a thing or two about Respect. About Excellence. About The Value of Hard Work. But then he got injured.
Regardless, here are eight of the greatest hymns from The Church of Roy.
The UFC has an absolutely stacked December planned, and fortunately for the average man who isn’t defecating greenbacks, three of four events are free. Just about every card headed our way inside the next month boasts some highly intriguing marqu…
The UFC has an absolutely stacked December planned, and fortunately for the average man who isn’t defecating greenbacks, three of four events are free. Just about every card headed our way inside the next month boasts some highly intriguing marquee fights, and quite a few of these bouts have major, major implications behind them.
This Saturday brings the first of four events, as Ben Henderson will aim to defend his lightweight crown against the always dangerous Nick Diaz in a promising main event.
Six days later we’ll see George Sotiropoulos and Ross Pearson headline the UFC on FX 6 card, and the following night it’s more action: The finale of The Ultimate Fighter Season 16 unfolds with Roy Nelson tapped to meet Matt Mitrione as the card’s top-liner.
But the action doesn’t stop there. The UFC will usher 2012 out of the door on December 29th with UFC 155, a pretty stacked card featuring a handful of enticing matches and, of course, the much anticipated rematch between heavyweight champion, Junior dos Santos, and the former champ, Cain Velasquez.
Remember when Carlos Condit wasn’t a target?Before he beat up Nick Diaz and sat on the UFC welterweight title, Condit delighted fans and pundits alike with his aggressive style, flashy knockouts and never-say-die brawling style. Fast forward a handful …
Remember when Carlos Condit wasn’t a target?
Before he beat up Nick Diaz and sat on the UFC welterweight title, Condit delighted fans and pundits alike with his aggressive style, flashy knockouts and never-say-die brawling style. Fast forward a handful of months later, and his name is as good as mud with many more fans.
But even with all the gripes, Condit doesn’t deserve the backlash.
He waited for a big money fight with the sport’s biggest pay-per-view draw. Is it fair to fault Condit—a father and 10-year fight veteran—in looking out for his own interests?
No. It’s unfair.
As quickly as we MMA fans praise the fighters we love, we’re just as quick to crucify other fighters for perceived selfishness, egotism, or any other qualities we think we see.
But the matter of fact is simply this—they don’t deserve the hate.
Condit‘s on everyone’s radar simply because he’s competing this Saturday at UFC 154. But here’s nine other past-and-present UFC fighters who should be cut some slack.
Out of action since October of 2011 and coming off a hype-derailing performance against Cheick Kongo, Mitrione needed to step up for the UFC in one way or another ASAP, lest he find himself Attonito’d. The perfect opportunity arose when Shane Carwin became the sixth coach in the last eight TUF seasons to pull out of his scheduled fight due to injury. So bada boom bada bing, Mitrione will now be squaring off against fellow TUF 10 castmate Roy Nelson at the TUF 16 Finale in December.
Out of action since October of 2011 and coming off a hype-derailing performance against Cheick Kongo, Mitrione needed to step up for the UFC in one way or another ASAP, lest he find himself Attonito’d. The perfect opportunity arose when Shane Carwin became the sixth coach in the last eight TUF seasons to pull out of his scheduled fight due to injury. So bada boom bada bing, Mitrione will now be squaring off against fellow TUF 10 castmate Roy Nelson at the TUF 16 Finale in December.
Ironically enough, Kongo was originally being sought after to fill in against Nelson. One would think that, given his last few performances (snoozer over Mitrione, crushed by Mark Hunt, even worse snoozer over Shawn Jordan), Kongo would want to try and earn a little redemption in both the fans and the UFC’s eyes by stepping up. Then again, Nelson’s short and stout frame would have made it difficult for the 6’4″ Frenchman to turn “Big Country’s” testicles into flapjacks with a series of low blows, so perhaps it makes sense that he turned the fight down.
In either case, Mitrione vs. Nelson will now headline the preposterously titled TUF 16 Finale, a card which more or less sums up the kind of talent the UFC has been able to discover in the past few seasons of the show. Which is to say, none. I mean, just look at this card:
-Roy Nelson vs. Matt Mitrione
-”TUF 16″ tournament final
-James Head vs. Mike Pyle
-Tim Elliott vs. Jared Papazian
-Pat Barry vs. Shane Del Rosario
-Melvin Guillard vs. Jamie Varner
-Jonathan Brookins vs. Dustin Poirier
-Johnny Bedford vs. Marcos Vinicius
-Rustam Khabilov vs. Vinc Pichel
-Nick Catone vs. T.J. Waldburger
-Reuben Duran vs. Hugo Viana
-John Cofer vs. Mike Rio
I know, pretty stacked for a TUF Finale, right? That might be because there are only two members from the current season competing on the card, who will undoubtedly have long careers in the UFC ahead of them [SARCASM].
This is what baffles me most about the current state of TUF. MMA is constantly evolving; gyms are popping up more frequently around the world than zits on a teenagers mug and producing more talented up and comers than ever before. Thousands upon thousands of fighters audition for TUF each year, yet somehow, those who are deemed talented enough for the show are simultaneously so untalented that they don’t even deserve a shot on the card dedicated to the show they were just on? After months of training with top fighters at their disposal?
I have no clue if Ross Pointon is a more talented fighter than the “Let me bang, bro” guy or not, but the TUF Finale events are starting to resemble some ass-backwards high school graduation where no students are actually invited on stage and instead spend three hours watching the teachers and past alumni stroke each other’s egos. And half of the teachers are from different schools. Perhaps stealing the casting crew behind the Real World/Road Rules Challenge wasn’t such a good move by the UFC after all…
Just the other day, it was announced that Shane Carwin had been forced to pull out of his upcoming fight on The Ultimate Fighter 16: Finale against Roy Nelson. One day later, a replacement has been named.A former castmate of Roy Nelson on Season 10 of …
Just the other day, it was announced that Shane Carwin had been forced to pull out of his upcoming fight on The Ultimate Fighter 16: Finale against Roy Nelson. One day later, a replacement has been named.
A former castmate of Roy Nelson on Season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter, Matt Mitrione, has stepped up to face off against Nelson.
This is a huge opportunity for Mitrione, as Nelson is ranked in, or close to, the top 10 heavyweights, according to most people. Mitrione is nowhere near.
Let’s take a look at a head-to-toe breakdown of Ultimate Fighter alumni.
It was almost an expected disappointment when we learned that Shane Carwin was out due to injury from his TUF 16 Finale match against Roy Nelson. And that’s not just because of the curse of the over-trained fighter which has afflicted the UFC rep…
It was almost an expected disappointment when we learned that Shane Carwin was out due to injury from his TUF 16 Finale match against Roy Nelson. And that’s not just because of the curse of the over-trained fighter which has afflicted the UFC repeatedly throughout the year.
Only as recently as last September I reported that Carwin suffered a minor injury, but at the time we were told the match was still on. But now, with the heavyweight definitely unable to fight on the December 15th card, we’ve been told that Matt Mitrione is stepping up.
Nelson and Mitrione were both contestants on the same series of The Ultimate Fighter: The Heavyweights, and will be reunited for the first time at the finale of the current season in Las Vegas.
This is a rare but much needed case of Mitrione acting like a company man. Two months ago, Dana White said he was “disgusted” with Mitrione’s refusal to step in and fight Daniel Cormier, who is still looking for the final opponent on his Strikeforce contract.
To make matters worse, Mitrione tried to create his own match-up by calling out Rampage Jackson in the division below him, but White gave short shrift to that idea.
It’s never a good idea to anger your boss, especially if you’re a fighter who is coming off a loss and hasn’t fought in a year like Mitrione.
Mitrione knew he was in the doghouse for his antics, and has been at pains to explain why he turned down the Cormier match.
Will stepping up to Nelson be enough to get him on the right side of White?
It isn’t clear whether Mitrione was the first choice. However, with the match just four weeks away, his actions could have saved the event and gone a long way in helping him get back into the UFC’s good books.
It was almost an expected disappointment when we learned that