Cheick Kongo vs. Roy "Big Country" Nelson Likely for UFC 116

Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin won't be the only big fight on the UFC 116 card. Cheick Kongo vs. Roy Nelson is a likely matchup for the July 3, 2010 competition. Multiple sources have cited this, including Big Country himself .

If Nelson won, it may be the end of the line for Kongo in the UFC.

After being brutally dropped and submitted by Frank Mir, Kongo made somewhat of a comeback against Paul Buenetello, who had previously been beaten by Stefan Struve, whom Nelson recently TKOd in 39 seconds .  

Without basing the likelihood of this matchup on MMA math, Nelson is a great contender for the victory. He has a solid ground game, as Frank Mir can certainly attest . 

Kongo is completely lacking in the ground phase of combat. Being that Nelson always looks for the quickest, most efficient victory, that's probably exactly where the fight will end up.

Kongo is probably the most one-dimensional fighter in the UFC. He claims to have worked on his ground game, but he is essentially a kickboxer in MMA. Then again, he has officially only lost once by submission . 

However, we all saw what happened to Kimbo when he faced Big Country in TUF 10. Kimbo was a unilateral brawler comparable to Cheick Kongo before adding an impressive ground game that he displayed against Houston Alexander.

Nevertheless, Roy literally sat on "the world's most dangerous street fighter" and crippled his offense, defeating him in the second round and finally ending Kimbo's fraught-with-mystique foundation that Seth Petruzelli shook in only 14 seconds .

Nelson can bring it better than anyone with his physical frame. He can stand with anyone, and though he has lost in the past, he has always put up a great stand-up defense and found success in taking the fight to the mat.

He doesn't go down easy, and after winning TUF 10 and winning his only two fights thus far in the UFC (with authority at that), Nelson has a bright future in the heavyweight division.

If he does manage to embarrass Kongo as he did Struve and the previously undefeated Brendan Schaub, who should be next for Big Country?

It may be too early to accurately predict the next step for Nelson, but with fights like Kongo vs. Nelson, Joe Silva may actually deserve a bit of credit.