(And if enough of you follow him on Twitter, he will fight this dog to the death on live television.)
Talk about an odd method of motivation. UFC President Dana White has long lamented over the extra baggage UFC heavyweight Roy Nelson has been carrying around over the course of his career, and it appeared to have some impact, as Nelson showed up at a slim and trim 246 pounds for his most recent UFC 143 battle with Fabricio Werdum. Though the results were less than successful, it seemed as if “Big Country” had actually begun to make a commitment to shedding the unnecessary pounds that were holding him back from being a truly elite fighter. After his loss to Werdum, many were calling for the rotund Burger King enthusiast to consider a drop to light heavyweight, regardless of how long it took. Though it would undoubtedly be a mountainous task, it would ultimately benefit Nelson, who is a mere 3-3 as a heavyweight in his UFC career.
Well according to Roy, we won’t be seeing him even attempt the cut unless he gets a few more people to “like” him on Facebook. In a recent interview with BloodyElbow, Nelson managed to set aside his order of baby back ribs long enough to make a pledge to transform his body, but if and only if he added 100,000 friends/likes/whogivesafucks to his profile:
The reason is my friend and I had a discussion about what was better? I think twitter just because of use and for fans interaction, but Facebook is 20x bigger. So we decided to bet. I said if it so easy and great I should be able add 100K fans in 2 weeks because I have that on twitter. Facebook is bigger and better so this should be easy. Right?
Bet is I will try to get to 205 if I can add 100k to Facebook.com/RoyNelsonUFC in two weeks. I love to win bets. Plus he will have to give me a part in his next movie.
In a somewhat contradictory assessment, Nelson later stated that he believes his page will not reach the required goal, ensuring that he will therefore not have to make the cut. A clever bit of reverse psychology? We’d like to think so, because otherwise it appears that he simply made a bet he knew was damn near unattainable in order to fake a commitment to his UFC future. And we love Roy too much to make that kind of assumption about him.
To be fair, we’ve seen this kind of marketing strategy work before. A pickle once managed to gain more popularity than superstar “rock” band Nickelback, and almost 1 million people have united over a common love of flipping their pillows over, all through the power of Facebook. Despite all this, the economy has somehow yet to recover. Mind-blowing.
Anyway, head over to Big Country’s Facebook page and “like” him if you want to see Nelson put his money where his mouth is. Just pray that he doesn’t cover said money with ketchup and nacho cheese before doing so.
-J. Jones
