Another Ultimate Fighter season, another injury to a coach. It happened last season, two seasons before that and two seasons before that.One reason that TUF coaches are picked is because they have a rivalry that will be settled in the cage. For Roy Nel…
Another Ultimate Fighter season, another injury to a coach. It happened last season, two seasons before that and two seasons before that.
One reason that TUFcoaches are picked is because they have a rivalry that will be settled in the cage. For Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin, that may have to wait a bit longer after Carwin blew out his knee.
Now Nelson awaits an opponent to challenge him at the finale next month. Here are three possible guys he should face.
Note: Only fighters not currently booked to fight were considered.
Mark Hunt
Having not competed since UFC 144 in Japan, “the Super Samoan” Mark Hunt would be an interesting choice to fight Nelson.
A kickboxer by trade, Hunt’s power has put away some of the most recognizable names in MMA. Hunt may lack on the ground, but you have to get in on him first and avoid his power strikes to get him on his back.
Nelson has a titanium chin that has seen him take some of the best strikers best shots and keep moving forward. It would be an interesting checkers game of power punching vs. takedowns.
It would be interesting to see if Hunt could break Nelson’s chin. My money is on yes, but let’s see the fight instead of speculating.
Cheick Kongo
France’s own Cheick Kongo has not competed since his atrocious UFC 149 outing against Shawn Jordan where both men did absolutely nothing for three rounds. Watching paint dry actually had some appeal to it after watching that travesty.
Kongo has a chance to make it up to fans by stepping up on short notice to fight Nelson. Kongo has a minor-card headlining name value that could keep this card attractive should he take the fight.
Kongo is a striker by nature, but has used takedowns and clinch work in the past to inflict damage on his opponents. Nelson is a much better ground fighter, so I think we’d see a classic Muay Thai Kongo in the Octagon.
This is definitely a matchup worth considering. It would save the main event and give fans an interesting matchup.
Josh Barnett
This is easily the biggest long shot of them all, but putting on a Josh Barnett-Roy Nelson headliner to save the card would attract immediate interest.
Barnett’s past history with the company makes this a long shot due to steroid use and other stipulations surrounding his personal life. However, Barnett possesses the ground game to make for an interesting grappling match between the two.
The buildup to the fight would be great as well. Barnett cuts promos like a professional wrestler. He’s sort of a poor man’s ChaelSonnen with a more psychotic edge.
Let’s not hold our breath on this one, but it would definitely be something fans would watch.
(In a related story, Roy Nelson was recently diagnosed with advanced dickdo disease.)
Well, we saw this one coming a mile away. After suffering a “minor knee injury” back in September, Shane Carwin has now pulled out of his scheduled fight against Roy Nelson at the TUF 16 Finale on December 15th, due to a knee injury that may or may not be related to the last one. UFC president Dana White confirmed the bad news last night, and said that the promotion is looking for a new opponent for Nelson.
It’s a terrible setback for Carwin, who hasn’t competed snce June 2011 due to a series of neck and back surgeries, and was already forced to drop out of a fight with Nelson at UFC 125. Carwin hasn’t won a fight since his knockout of Frank Mir in March 2010, and at age 37, his competitive days are running out. There’s no word yet on the severity of Shane’s injury, or when he might return to action.
And by the way, this means that five of the last seven U.S. seasons of TUF — 10, 11, 13, 15, and now 16 — as well as one of the two international seasons (TUF Brazil), have ended with the coaches’ fight being canceled or delayed. Spooky. We’ll let you know when Roy Nelson picks up his replacement opponent. Our suggestion: How about Pat Barry, who’s already booked on the card against Shane Del Rosario?
And hey, speaking of UFC stars who have to pull out of fights next month due to knee injuries…
(In a related story, Roy Nelson was recently diagnosed with advanced dickdo disease.)
Well, we saw this one coming a mile away. After suffering a “minor knee injury” back in September, Shane Carwin has now pulled out of his scheduled fight against Roy Nelson at the TUF 16 Finale on December 15th, due to a knee injury that may or may not be related to the last one. UFC president Dana White confirmed the bad news last night, and said that the promotion is looking for a new opponent for Nelson.
It’s a terrible setback for Carwin, who hasn’t competed since June 2011 due to a series of neck and back surgeries, and was already forced to drop out of a fight with Nelson at UFC 125. Carwin hasn’t won a fight since his knockout of Frank Mir in March 2010, and at age 37, his competitive days are running out. There’s no word yet on the severity of Shane’s injury, or when he might return to action.
And by the way, this means that five of the last seven U.S. seasons of TUF — 10, 11, 13, 15, and now 16 — as well as one of the two international seasons (TUF Brazil), have ended with the coaches’ fight being canceled or delayed. Spooky. We’ll let you know when Roy Nelson picks up his replacement opponent. Our suggestion: How about Pat Barry, who’s already booked on the card against Shane Del Rosario?
And hey, speaking of UFC stars who have to pull out of fights next month due to knee injuries…
(“All natural, bro. No steroids. No testosterone. I’ve never hired a nutritionist. I’ve never bought hair conditioner. I ate my dog‘s food once, but it was an accident.” Photo via MMAWeekly)
Unlike some people we know, UFC heavyweights Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson are training without the help of performance-enhancing drugs. According to Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer (via MMAMania), Carwin and Nelson have both tested negative for steroids and diuretics, after being tapped for random testing last month.
(“All natural, bro. No steroids. No testosterone. I’ve never hired a nutritionist. I’ve never bought hair conditioner. I ate my dog‘s food once, but it was an accident.” Photo via MMAWeekly)
Unlike some people we know, UFC heavyweights Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson are training without the help of performance-enhancing drugs. According to Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer (via MMAMania), Carwin and Nelson have both tested negative for steroids and diuretics, after being tapped for random testing last month.
It has been an up and down season 16 of The Ultimate Fighter in terms of the fights and ratings. The ratings for this season have hit a low of 624,000 viewers with a high mark of 1.1 million, which has been achieved twice with last week’…
It has been an up and down season 16 of The Ultimate Fighter in terms of the fights and ratings. The ratings for this season have hit a low of 624,000 viewers with a high mark of 1.1 million, which has been achieved twice with last week’s episode hitting that number.
The season overall has been averaging 863,000 viewers, which is down when they went with TUF LIVE format earlier this year when it averaged a little more than a million viewers.
The fights have been the same thing as the ratings—up and down. We see fights like last week between Roy Nelson team fighter Jon Manley defeating Shane Carwin team fighter James Chaney via submission. Then we get fights like we saw about two weeks ago between Michael Hill and Matt Secor where for the most part the fight stalled before ending in controversy when the judges announced Hill got the victory.
Episode three of TUF saw the oldest member of the show—Team Nelson’s Joey Rivera—defeat Team Carwin’s number one selection Sam Alvey by majority decision. The 32 year old who fights out of Tucson, Arizona got into MMA due to the rough atmosphere of his early days in New Jersey.
“I first started training in 1997, when I was still in high school,” Rivera told Bleacher Report. “I started in aikido and then started doing judo. I really fell in love though with grappling. It was a great way to not get in trouble and to do something for myself. My neighborhood in New Jersey wasn’t the best and grappling was a good outlet for me to get away and find something I like to do.”
Most guys who make The Ultimate Fighter usually only tryout once to make the show. Rivera, however, tried out numerous times and felt that he wasn’t going to get that break of getting on the show.
“I had actually tried out three different times,” Rivera stated. “I actually tried out for the welterweight season, the lightweight season and another welterweight season. Finally they had another tryout, which was for this current season, but I wasn’t going to go because I had felt I tried too many times. They (UFC) said I didn’t have to tryout anymore and they accepted me.
“They (UFC) took me to the interview and accepted me. It was like all the hard work is now beginning to pay off.”
Roy Nelson has been questioned by UFC President Dana White in the past regarding the way Nelson looks, his work ethic; the list goes on and on. You see some of those things on the show, such as after Rivera’s victory Nelson made his guys pick a straw and whoever drew the shortest either had to fight or pass the straw to another teammate. Julian Lane got the shortest straw and chose to fight.
Rivera says he respects Nelson as a fighter, but questions Nelson’s fight selections, training methods and his commitment to the show from the very first practice up to last week’s episode.
“We as a team are frustrated with those things and we noticed it at the beginning, from the very first practice to right now in the season,” Rivera stated. “Its not that Roy Nelson is a bad guy. I just think that he’s probably a lot better fighter than he is a coach.
“Roy Nelson is a heavyweight. The first episode he basically said that his wife was pregnant and this (TUF) was a wrinkle in his plans because he had a fight coming up in December and all this other stuff. Exactly what he said is what we are to him.
“He lives in Vegas and if you compare him to Shane Carwin, where he came and brought in Nate Marquardt, his wrestling and strength and conditioning coach. He brought a team down. In where that with Roy Nelson, he lives in Vegas and he thinks he has that luxury of going home and relaxing where these guys (Carwin’s coaches) are on the job. He plans it a little better.”
Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained firsthand.
(Not pictured: Fabricio Werdum and Junior Dos Santos, merrily sharing a caipirinha.)
All of Roy Nelson‘s rabble-rousing about drug-testing has paid off…sort of. While Big Country has been campaigning to have his upcoming fight against Shane Carwin overseen by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA), it was confirmed today that the Nevada State Athletic Commission has informed both fighters that they’ll be subject to random testing at some point before their December 15th meeting at the TUF 16 Finale. The fighters will need to provide samples within 24 hours of request, and the results will be returned in approximately two weeks.
(Serious question: The NSAC is completely within its rights to randomly drug test fighters out of competition, so why is it necessary to inform those fighters that that’s what it intends to do? I’m just saying, if you were Nelson or Carwin, and you were, hypothetically, using steroids up until yesterday, and the NSAC calls you and says they’re going to randomly test you sometime in the next two months, wouldn’t that be your signal to stop using PEDs immediately and hope they’re out of your system by the time they ask for your piss?)
If you’ve been keeping up on this story, you know that Carwin’s camp had been against VADA’s involvement from the beginning, with Shane’s manager Jason Genet calling VADA an “opportunistic” organization with an “anti-Shane” bias, and questioning why an independent testing body is any better than the athletic commission testing currently in place for MMA fighters. “I’m questioning where the relevancy coming from,” Genet said earlier this week. “As a manager, it’s not that I wouldn’t agree with outside testing. I want to know what’s wrong with what’s currently taking place.”
(Not pictured: Fabricio Werdum and Junior Dos Santos, merrily sharing a caipirinha.)
All of Roy Nelson‘s rabble-rousing about drug-testing has paid off…sort of. While Big Country has been campaigning to have his upcoming fight against Shane Carwin overseen by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA), it was confirmed today that the Nevada State Athletic Commission has informed both fighters that they’ll be subject to random testing at some point before their December 15th meeting at the TUF 16 Finale. The fighters will need to provide samples within 24 hours of request, and the results will be returned in approximately two weeks.
(Serious question: The NSAC is completely within its rights to randomly drug test fighters out of competition, so why is it necessary to inform those fighters that that’s what it intends to do? I’m just saying, if you were Nelson or Carwin, and you were, hypothetically, using steroids up until yesterday, and the NSAC calls you and says they’re going to randomly test you sometime in the next two months, wouldn’t that be your signal to stop using PEDs immediately and hope they’re out of your system by the time they ask for your piss?)
If you’ve been keeping up on this story, you know that Carwin’s camp had been against VADA’s involvement from the beginning, with Shane’s manager Jason Genet calling VADA an “opportunistic” organization with an “anti-Shane” bias, and questioning why an independent testing body is any better than the athletic commission testing currently in place for MMA fighters. “I’m questioning where the relevancy coming from,” Genet said earlier this week. “As a manager, it’s not that I wouldn’t agree with outside testing. I want to know what’s wrong with what’s currently taking place.”
First of all, “what’s wrong with the testing” is that it’s woefully bad. VADA tests for more substances and via more methods than anything the commissions are doing. Commissions aren’t engaging in Carbon Isotope Ratio testing, VADA is. To act like there’s the slightest debate over if VADA is better than the commission checking urine is absurd and nonsense of the highest degree…Now, with Carwin’s prior attachment to a steroid pharmacy and now looking like they’re ducking VADA testing, the accepted best method for combat sports testing, is not going to make Shane look particularly good.
And wasn’t that Nelson’s intention all along? Like BJ Penn and Floyd Mayweather before him, this public outcry to “clean up the sport” is just a new form of gamesmanship, in which a fighter can make his opponent come off as a cheater in the eyes of the public, simply by refusing the special terms laid out by his opponent. If Carwin winds up whooping Nelson’s ass, Nelson can always call the result into question. Who knows what Shane was really using before the fight, right? The VADA testing could have revealed the truth, but Shane ducked it. Maybe the fight would have gone a different way if blah blah blah, etc.
For now, the NSAC’s random testing will have to be good enough. And while that testing isn’t the most effective method available, it’s not completely useless either.
Under the UFC banner the heavyweight division has been a “work in progress” for some time.The days of Brock Lesnar reigning supreme as a pay-per-view draw have passed, and in the void, fighters have slung the heavy leather to establish a new hierarchy …
Under the UFC banner the heavyweight division has been a “work in progress” for some time.
The days of Brock Lesnar reigning supreme as a pay-per-view draw have passed, and in the void, fighters have slung the heavy leather to establish a new hierarchy in the weight class.
As Junior dos Santos and company have helped to usher in a new generation for the organization, the next wave or future contenders have been doing their best to break through. The process has been a knockout-filled extravaganza, and when the dust settles at the end of 2012 the divisional picture will finally develop.
Over the final four months of the year fans will see prospects tested, veterans attempt to hold their ground and a champion defend his title. While the UFC hasn’t promoted the bouts as a tournament format, the manner in which the current schedule is laid out,will certainly decide who steps up and who is ultimately rolled back into the fold.
It is a crucial time for the weight class.
Judging from the action which has already occurred over the past two weekends, the fighters involved understand the opportunity before them.
Veterans Hold Strong as the Next Wave Rises
The two most recent cards have put a spotlight on the division as heavyweights have filled the main event slots. In both matchups, veterans have faced surging prospects and in both cases have pulled off upsets in stunning fashion. Two weekends ago in Nottingham, England, Stefan Struve launched himself into the mix of contenders by halting the momentum of StipeMiocic via a second-round TKO.
Last night at UFC on FX 5, a resilient Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva made good on his pledge of “all or nothing” by earning a first-round stoppage victory over the previously undefeated Travis Browne. Both battles yielded similar results as the victor saw his stock rise and the defeated were rolled back for the time being.
The interesting aspect of these particular fights is what the picture would have looked like if the results were different. While Struve is young, the Dutch “Skyscraper” has attempted to break into contention before, and had been Miocic‘s hand raised, the brand of unfulfilled potential may have been officially stamped. Stuve would have none of this as he finally appeared to understand his range advantage and battered Miocic for the stoppage.
Same goes for “Bigfoot” Silva. The glimmer of defeating FedorEmelianenko has faded and in his two previous outings he found disastrous results. Had Browne found victory in last night’s throwdown, the idea of Silva being a top heavyweight would have exited the cage with him. Instead, Silva came into the fight knowing the weight of the moment and pulled out the impressive victory.
Stuve and Silva will go further into the fire while Miocic and Browne will have to regain their footing.
A Rematch One Year in the Making
The UFC has made no secret about its expectation of the heavyweights. The organization fully intends on the weight class becoming one of their premier divisions, solidifying that notion by making a heavyweight title fight the main event of the first showing on Fox. The bout featured a previously undefeated champion in Cain Velasquez against the devastating knockout power of rising star Junior dos Santos.
It only took 64 seconds for “Cigano” to claim the position of heavyweight king as he scored the knockout victory.
While the loss was a setback for Velasquez, it didn’t reshuffle him completely.
He was eager to earn another title shot and the cards played out in his favor. Velasquez was originally slated to face Frank Mir at UFC 146, but following the situation with Alistair Overeem being pulled from the card, Mir was bumped up to fight dos Santos and Velasquez would face Antonio Silva. Both fights would end in dramatic fashion as Velasquez beat Silva to a bloody mess and dos Santos starched Mir in the second round.
Following their victories at UFC 146, UFC President Dana White deemed the timing right for a rematch. The bout was originally slated for UFC 152 in Toronto, but has since been pushed back to the end of the year at UFC 155.
The rematch will serve to answer questions which swirled around the MMA community following their first bout. Velasquez had spent an extensive amount of time on the shelf due to shoulder surgery and dos Santos came into the fight nursing an injured knee. With both men at the top of their game it will be a clear look at two of the division’s best.
Nelson vs. Carwin to Decide Who Stays in the Mix
In the current state of the division one would be hard-pressed to find two fighters with more high-profile experience than Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin.
Both have been inside the Octagon with the division’s best and are set to square-off on Dec. 15 at the TUF 16 Finale. They were originally slated to fight at UFC 125, but an injury to Carwin forced the bout to be scrapped. Now they will have the opportunity to let their heavy hands fly when they step into the cage at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in December.
The apparent grudge which has developed between the two fighters will be front and center for the bout, but the real story will be in what comes after.
Carwin has lost his last two fights, and when he steps into the Octagon with Nelson it will come at the end of nearly year-and-a-half layoff. It is doubtful a third consecutive loss would cost the former interim champion his job with the UFC, but it would certainly be enough to push him out of contender waters for the foreseeable future.
Carwin isn’t getting any younger, and with the amount of injuries which have piled up over the past few years, now is his time to make a stand. While a victory over Nelson most likely won’t result in another title shot, it will keep his slot as one of the division’s best intact.
“Big Country” has spent a career in the UFC throwing hands with the best of the best and Carwin is the next step on that journey. Following a rough patch which saw him drop back to back fights against dos Santos and Mir, Nelson has battled back to claim two of his last three fights, with his most recent showing coming by way of one-punch devastation at the expense of Dave Herman at UFC 146.
In facing Carwin at the Finale, Nelson will have the opportunity to take another big step up on the divisional ladder. Should he find victory, Nelson will solidify himself in the divisional upper tier where a defeat would push him back into the lower deck.
The Wild Cards
While the division plays out, there are certainly variables that exist in the fringe.
A handful of the world’s top heavyweights find themselves at the mercy of circumstance, and the eventuality of their inclusion in the weight class serves to bolster a bright future for the division.
The current Strikeforce Grand Prix champion and rising star Daniel Cormier has made quite the impact over the past year. Big wins over Silva and Josh Barnett launched Cormier‘s name onto Top 10 lists around the sport, and his trajectory only appeared to be rising. With the UFC absorbing Strikeforce’s heavyweight roster, it looked as if “DC” was going to hit the ground running with the world’s top heavyweights.
Following the conclusion of Grand Prix, it was announced Cormier had one final fight to fulfill on his Strikeforce contract before coming over. The rumor of a potential opponent floated around for months, but when the UFC announced former champion Frank Mir would be coming over, a high-profile throwdown was set for Nov. 3 in Oklahoma.
Unfortunately Mir would succumb to injury, which left Cormier once again without an opponent. Over the past several weeks, multiple names have surfaced as replacements but all have been shot down before coming to fruition. Less than a month remains until fight night, and Cormier still has no idea who he will be facing. While a future facing the UFC’s best is a near certainty, getting there appears to be the hardest part.
You can’t talk about top heavyweights in the sport of MMA without mentioning Alistair Overeem. “The Reem” has been a wrecking machine, going nearly five years without a notch in the loss column. Over this time he has championed multiple organizations and made an impressive debut by scoring a TKO victory over Brock Lesnar at UFC 141.
The good vibes faded for Overeem following his smashing of Lesnar.
His title shot against dos Santos was revoked when he failed a pre-fight drug test for elevated levels of testosterone. Overeem would eventually go in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission to explain the reason’s behind the failed test, but NSAC’s decision left him unable to re-apply for licensing until December of this year. Once Overeem returns to the action the divisional race will only become that much more exciting.
Another top heavyweight on the “limbo” list is Fabricio Werdum.
The Brazilian submission ace cannot seem to find a direct path to contention since coming over to the UFC from Strikeforce. Despite an impressive debut showing against Nelson at UFC 143, Werdum was then matched up with Mike Russow in one of the year’s most lopsided affairs. It was a pairing which made very little sense in regard to the big picture, and Werdum dispatched of the Chicago Police officer in quick fashion.
Werdum is sitting on back-to-back victories since crossing over, and it appears as if he will remain sitting for a bit longer. With all of the top heavyweights currently locked into fights, the King’s MMA-trained fighter will most likely have to sit on the shelf.
Following his victory over Miocic, Struve requested Werdum for his next opponent, and while that matchup makes sense, it would most likely come in early 2013, if it gets put together. That is a long time for Werdum to wait, but if he intends to stay amongst the top of his weight class, it may be the best option he has.
The year will conclude with several high-profile, action-packed matchups that will ultimately set the table for what could be an incredible run for the heavyweight division in 2013.
Another Ultimate Fighter season, another injury to a coach. It happened last season, two seasons before that and two seasons before that.
It has been an up and down season 16 of The Ultimate Fighter in terms of the fights and ratings. The ratings for this season have hit a low of 624,000 viewers with a high mark of 1.1 million, which has been achieved twice with last week’s episode hitting that number.
