UFC UFN 21: Roy Nelson Feels Right at Home in the UFC

Fresh off an impressive first round KO victory over Brendan Schaub to win season 10 of the UFC’s hit reality series, The Ultimate Fighter , Roy Nelson is preparing for his first test as a UFC fighter.

That test will come in the form of 6’11” Dutch youngster, Stefan Struve—who is currently riding a three fight win streak inside the Octagon—at Ultimate Fight Night 21 from the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Stefan (Struve) definitely has a height and reach advantage,” Nelson told Bleacher Report when asked about his opponent. “But it’s just one of those things that, as a fighter, you have to deal with. You have to look past it and do what you need to do to get the W.”

Aside from Struve’s obvious length, he also brings a pretty well-rounded game into the cage with him, and while there are a lot of fighters today who enter the Octagon with a specific plan of attack designed for their opponents, Nelson prefers to just be ready for anything and take what his opponent gives him instead.

With a decade of experience under his Gracie black belt, there isn’t much that Nelson hasn’t already seen in the fight game.

“It’s going to be a feeling-out process. If I feel like I’m winning the stand-up, I’ll probably keep it standing. But if I’m losing the stand-up fight, I’ll look to go to the ground. Hopefully I can win the ground stuff.”

Being an experienced and tested veteran of the sport, Nelson believes that with a win over Struve, he could easily find himself right in the thick of the UFC title picture.

“I feel that I’m right in the mix. Stefan Struve’s right in the mix too, so I think whoever wins will be in the mix for the title hunt. We’re co-headlining the card so we’re definitely people that the fans want to watch.”

While Nelson has always had the skill and ability to compete in the UFC, he chose to travel a different path. It’s been a long journey for Nelson to get to this point, but now that he is in the UFC, he feels at home.

“When I first started fighting, we considered doing the UFC and then I went a whole different route just to kind of build myself and build myself with fans. All roads will always end with the UFC. I just knew that eventually I would be in the UFC, so I just kind of did my own thing.”

Now that Nelson is finally in the UFC, he’s ready to fight the best and he feels that with his experience and skill set that he can be a problem for anyone including current UFC heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar.

“I think in a matchup with Brock (Lesnar) I’d do pretty well; as Frank Mir would say, ‘as long as you’re a big guy.’ You have to be big with Brock so you can’t get muscled. I think styles make matches and I think that I matchup pretty well with anyone in the UFC.”