Roy Nelson: "Big Country" Train Moving A Little Too Fast

           At UFC 117 we saw a dominant performance by arguably the best heavyweight in the most competitive organization. Junior Dos Santos used his crisp, powerful boxing skills to pick apart Roy “Big Country” Nelson for three rounds. A good deal of people expected this due to Junior’s performances in which he completely dismantled opponents such as Fabricio Werdum, Stefan Struve, Mirko Cro Cop, Gilbert Yvel, and Gabriel Gonzaga and then Nelson. He also finished all but one of his opponents besides Nelson and Cro Cop in the first round. He certainly beat some upper tier heavyweights, beating three men who are considered top fifteen heavyweights. Dos Santos beat five legitimate contenders to earn his number one contender. Big Country however had a much easier track to earn this.

            Roy Nelson is 15-5 in his MMA career, a man who possesses a well-rounded arsenal that includes a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and was a former IFL Champion . Reading these statistics on Roy the common man would see no fault in granting Roy a shot at the number 1 contender spot. There is actually less than meets the eye with Big Country.

            A fighter who is fighting for the title must earn a title shot, as mentioned earlier Junior Dos Santos beat top flight competition. To earn said title shot you must prove you are at least the top five in the weight class. You must beat legitimate contenders who would have a good shot at the title. This is not the case with Big Country. Although he holds good record of 15-5 in his career he has few if any “significant” victories. His biggest victory of his career is probably over Brendan Schaub, a former ex-football player who possesses raw talent and one day could be a threat to the division, in the Ultimate Fighter finale. Besides that there has been little to write home about for Nelson. He defeated Brad Imes by TKO, a man who went 0-2 in the UFC heavyweight division. Besides a first round knockout over Stefan Struve, he has beat up several irrelevant fighters that most die-hard fan have probably never heard of such as, Fabiano Scherner, Antoine Jaude, and Bryan Vetell. Exactly…who? His losses are also far from impressive as he has lost to a quickly fading Andrei Arlovski, an over-the-hill Jeff Monson, and Ben Rothwell, a man who saw his face get beat to a pulp by Cain Velasquez before a sloppy victory over Gilbert Yvel.

            These are wins that are decent at best and losses that are nothing to brag about. There are probably a good deal of fighter who would give Big Country a good deal of problems who were not fighting for a title shot such as, Minotauro Nogueria, Mirko Cro Cop, Frank Mir, Cheick Kongo, or Randy Couture for that matter.

            This is the man who felt as though he deserved a title shot after winning the Ultimate Fighter. A fighter should earn himself a shot at the title. With all due respect to Roy Nelson he's a decent fighter, let's not make him something more than he is.