Two Top 10-ranked heavyweights will soon collide in UFC Fight Night 52's main event, the winner of which could be launched into contendership in the near future. Roy Nelson faces a very tough opponent in Mark Hunt, but can he overcome this challenge and legitimize himself as a contender?
Roy Nelson is a fighter as tough as they come.
"Big Country" has built his name off a gritty, swing-for-the-fences approach to fighting. And in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight division, that seems like a death wish. Nonetheless, he has put together plenty of solid wins in his time with the promotion, making a fairly respectable career for himself in the process.
The problem with Nelson is that he has just never made it into the next level. His crowning achievement in mixed martial arts (MMA) may just be his winning of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 10, a season in which he was the only fighter with any semblance of a respectable career in the sport.
Nelson compounded his success on the show with several impressive finishes over mid-tier UFC heavyweights, but every single time he got a step up in competition, "Big Country" failed to deliver. In fact, not only did he fail to deliver, he looked downright hopeless in all of the matches. Bouts with Junior Dos Santos, Frank Mir, Fabricio Werdum, Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier were all incredibly one-sided affairs, and not in Nelson's favor.
This comes down to what is evidently a lack of skill on Nelson's part.
Sure, timing and power will serve a fighter well against the technically shoddy opponents in the soft underbelly that is the lower portion of the Top 15 heavyweights; however, once a fighter makes that step up in competition, several more factors come into play.
No longer can a game focused on wild overhand rights and the occasional combination be good enough to get a win.
Now, Nelson is scheduled to face off with Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 52 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, in just a few short hours. It's a main event match that could shape the future of either fighter. Both men come into this fight on something of a high note, with Nelson having beaten Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Hunt coming in off a thrilling draw with Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva.
Hunt -- as exciting and wild as he can be -- is a very good striker. That much is evident just by looking at his K-1 tenure, one that is far more decorated than that of other "K-1 veterans" that Joe Rogan has been known to glorify.
That means a lot for Nelson. It means that he's facing off with someone that could probably take just as good a punch as he can, but someone who may be better at throwing them back. Hunt's combination striking is crisp and powerful. And his movement and kicking game aren't too shabby either.
All of this means that for Roy Nelson to have a chance in this fight, he'll need to show some drastic changes to his game if he wants to sniff victory. He can't sit and wait for Hunt to let him counter with a big right hand. He also can't just bullrush like an idiot.
Ultimately, I'm not at all convinced he can pull it off. And to be honest, I'm baffled that the odds on this fight are so close. Unless Nelson adopts an entirely different approach to his game for this fight, he will probably not come away victorious. His biggest hope is that Hunt's last two fights have taken a bigger toll on him than anyone thought and that it will lead to him being chinnier than he has in the past.
Nelson faces a big challenge later tonight and when he faces off with "Super Samoan" in the main event at UFC Fight Night 52. It may just be his last chance to break into the upper tiers of UFC's Heavyweight division. I don't think he can do it, but hey, maybe he will prove the doubters wrong.
After all, anything can -- and often does -- happen in MMA.
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