THE CANADIAN PRESS
It took a while for Roy (Big Country) Nelson to get to the UFC but the roly-poly heavyweight says he figured out years ago that he had the chops to stick with the top fighters.
Nelson, 34, was just a kid when he took up martial arts in 1984. Wrestling followed and then the Las Vegas native found jiu-jitsu in 2000.
"And I had a real knack for jiu-jitsu," he recalled. "I started actually coaching all the UFC champions and UFC fighters and I was beating these guys up and these were supposed to be the best in the world.
"I was like ‘Man I could do this.’ And they weren’t paying my bills so I decided just to go take their money."
Nelson recalls getting his blue belt in a month.
"And the fact that I was teaching and tapping out world UFC champions, I figured you know what? I’m pretty good at this."
Nelson (16-4 including 2-0 in the UFC) will get a good reality check of those skills Saturday night at UFC 117 in Oakland, Calif., when he takes on rising heavyweight star Junior Dos Santos. The winner is expected to get a title shot against either current heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar or Cain Velasquez, who are expected to face off at UFC 121 in October.
Dos Santos (11-1 including 5-0 in the UFC) is a hard-hitting Brazilian who has taken down Fabricio Werdum, Stefan (Skyscraper) Struve, Mirko (Cro Cop) Filipovic, Gilbert Yvel and Gabriel Gonzaga in the Octagon.
The six-foot-four, 236-pounder stopped all but Filipovic in the first round.
"I really didn’t have a choice," Nelson said of the high-test matchup. "They just told me whom I’m fighting and that’s really what it was. And we know nobody really wants to fight Dos Santos just because he is probably the No. 1 guy in the UFC right now."
Coming off his own knockout of Struve, Nelson is unfazed by big challenges. In fact, his victory over Struve mirrored that of Dos Santos, with both men crumpling the six-foot-11 Dutch beanpole at the fence.
Nelson made his MMA debut as a pro in 2004, winning his first six fights (four by submission).
He won a title in the International Fight League, where he went 6-1, before eventually landing in the UFC.
Of his four losses, all but three were by decision. Only former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski, via KO in the second round in an EliteXC bout, has stopped Nelson.
When Nelson started fighting, he was still working as a substitute teacher and doing before- and after-school programs for kids. Nelson, who went to junior college before getting his education degree at UNLV, gave up the day job in 2005.
"I had to make the choice: do I want to teach or do I want to be a fighter. And I took fighting, and I started teaching jiu-jitsu. So I was still teaching but I stopped teaching elementary school."
Nelson is selective about who he helps these days. "I teach all the guys that I want to teach," he explains.
There is a reasons for being picky. He has big plans down the line to open a string of gyms.
"I’m going to be the American Gracie," he said.
At six foot and 263 pounds, Nelson looks like the complete opposite of the chiselled Dos Santos. He seems to embrace his couch potato looks, rubbing his gut and talking food after wins.
But he is savvy on the ground — stopping Kimbo Slice in his opening fight on Season 10 of "The Ultimate Fighter."
Still UFC president Dana White was unimpressed until Nelson took out Britain’s James McSweeney in the show’s semifinals.
"He talks like he came out and he was a world-beater. Finally in the last fight he was. Good job, Roy, you finally impressed me," White said at the time.
Nelson then sealed the deal by knocking out Brendan Schaub in the live finale of the reality TV show. Nelson felled Schaub with a right to the side of the head and then slammed him on the chin as he lay on his back.
Nelson joked he was headed to Burger King after the fight. And he could easily have had it his way there, thanks to the US$25,000 knockout of the night bonus for his performance.
Nelson says the reality TV show "was pretty much just a PR stunt, it was just (a way for) me to introduce myself to the UFC fan in a big way."
"The only other way is to just buy airtime on TV and do infomercials," he added.
So far, so good.
Nelson’s two most recent wins lasted a combined four minutes 24 seconds.
"I suppose I’m a ground guy but I haven’t won a submission forever," he said. "I haven’t needed to go to the ground yet."
His last submission win was 14 fights ago, although he has used his ground skills to set up TKOs as he did against Slice, trapping him in a crucifix position and then pummelling him.
His job against Dos Santos will be to elude the Brazilian’s power and get himself in a position where he can use his skills.
Nelson has done things his own way, which includes training at his home.
And he has always spoken his mind.
"I think people are drawn to people that are just honest … and I kind of tell it like it is," he said. "I don’t sugar-coat things and it’s definitely entertaining when someone speaks their mind.
"A lot of people nowadays have no backbone… . Nobody stands up for what’s right anymore. It’s all about the dollar."
Nelson says his sport is no different.
"You know what, I used to think fighting used to be the purest form of sport out there. You know what, that was me being a little bit younger and naive but now I know that it’s definitely a sea of sharks out there."
Still, he says one thing always triumphs
"It doesn’t matter what you say or what you do as long as you win, everybody loves you."
