Why UFC's Dana White is Wrong About TUF 10 Champ Roy Nelson
Throughout season ten of SpikeTV’s The Ultimate Fighter, right through “Big Country” Roy Nelson’s (14-4) knockout of Brendan Schaub (3-1) at The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale in Las Vegas Saturday night, UFC President Dana White paid Nelson distinctly less respect than any of the fighters in the competition.
White said Nelson has “the worst physique in professional sports” and complained about Nelson’s confidence throughout the competition.
But, none of the fighters on TUF 10 who actually had to step into the Octagon versus Nelson made similar critiques. All of Nelson’s opponents dutifully promised to win, of course; and, Schaub even promised to knock Nelson out. But, no one questioned Nelson’s confidence or called him a “fat guy.”
The difference between White and Nelson’s opponents is that White has to promote a phenomenal fat guy while Nelson’s opponents have to fight a phenomenal fat guy. And, if you’re the king of the streets like “Kimbo Slice” Kevin Ferguson (4-1), a Greco-Roman wrestling champion like Justin Wren (8-2), a decorated kickboxer like James McSweeney (4-4), or a former NFL football player like Schaub, after Nelson etches an “L” into your record, you just got beat-up by that same fat guy you were demeaning as just a fat guy.
White has logged a lot of hours changing the image of the UFC from gritty brawler “Tank” David Abbott (10-14) to clean-cut certified überathlete Fighters.com’s second-ranked heavyweight and UFC champion Brock Lesnar (4-1).
Nelson, his buddha belly, and his curly mohawk crash White’s party.
And, in a sense, White is right. Watching the final episode of TUF 10 with a friend who is aware of MMA, but doesn’t consider it much of a sport, I realized how Nelson turns off fans of mainstream team sports where the rules are conceived to ensure the best athlete wins. He was appalled that Nelson had reached the finals of a supposed athletic competition.
“Roy is good,” I protested.
“But, wouldn’t he be better if he were in shape,” my friend asked.
I explained, “He is in shape. Look, he’s training with three former NFL players, doing everything everyone else is doing, and two of those NFL players have had to sit out days of training. Roy never has.”
My friend was skeptical, even hostile towards Nelson based wholly on Nelson’s physique compared to his confidence. My friend was rooting for the clean-cut, former professional football player Schaub after watching just one episode of TUF 10.
But, for MMA purists like you and I, Nelson’s physique and dearth of athletic genetics combined with his deep understanding of fighting, proves that MMA, at it’s heart, is a high-skilled athletic endeavor. Unlike football and unlike action films, fighting is skill-intensive, not based on genetics or looks. It’s a chess game that tests your will to win by ensuring painful results when you make a bad move.
Watching Nelson knockout Schaub was similar to watching third-ranked Frank Mir (12-4) tap out Lesnar at UFC 81 in Las Vegas in 2008. As much as onlookers outside of the sport want MMA to be a bunch of thick-headed bar brawlers trading head shots until someone falls, it’s proven time-and-again that, when athletes from other sports step into MMA, they’re quickly humbled by the volume of skills that they have to study and the intensity of training day-in-and-day-out.
On TUF 10, former Tampay Bay Bucs top draft pick “Big Baby” Marcus Jones (4-2) admitted his training in the NFL was nothing close to the intensity and effort of training to fight.
Nelson has done that training for years while also picking up all of the skills necessary to compete at a high level in MMA. Though spectators ignorant about the sport will look at Nelson and have their misconceptions about MMA confirmed, I look at Nelson and he proves that fighting is as much about skill and heart as genetics. That’s what attracted many core fans to the sport years ago. It’s the promise that, even if you’re not born to succeed, you can work hard, study, and overcome your limitations to become successful anyway.
Nelson wasn’t born a 6′6″, 265- pound muscle-bound giant like Jones. Nelson was born the way you see him today and will kick Jones’s ass with the skills he’s developed through hours of hard work in the gym.
White should spend less time being annoyed with having to now promote Nelson as a certified UFC fighter and devote his effort to promoting Nelson for the symbol of what a high-skilled, heart-testing sport MMA is. And, whenever one of these magazine cover, chiseled athletes wants to call Nelson just a fat guy, White should serve the guy to Nelson in a clamshell box and watch Nelson descend on him like a Burger King Whopper.
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TUF 10 Finale Results: Roy Nelson Flattens Brendan Schaub to Win TUF 10
Posted: December 6, 2009Comments: 0 -
Roy Nelson and Brendan Schaub Advance to Finals on SpikeTV’s The Ultimate Fighter 10
Posted: December 2, 2009Comments: 0
Well said, Totally agree with you.
umm didnt Nelsoon come out to the song FAT by Weird Al?? Its not just Dana White, its Nelson promoting himself as the fat guy! he rubbed his fuc*ing belly after he won! so ur bitching for nothin IMO. and Dana already gave him props after he (Roy) won in the Semi-Finals….
wasnt a big fan of nelson on the show not because of his weight just the way he was but hey it wasnt really about how he was a s aperson it was all about if he could fight which he proved in abundance couple of his fights may not have been entertaining but at least he got the job done, this guy just proves that average joes like me can make it im a big lad myself just like roy and i want to fight and am willing to put the work in its good to see that even if i cant lose the weight theres a possibility i can still get the job done, thanks roy
Roy is very good at building his persona and selling himself. The disrespect from Dana actually reinforces the fat guy character that Roy is trying to convey. It is also perfect that Burger King is a sponsor. Anyway, good article. I went off on a similar rant about how casual fans don’t like Roy because he flies completely counter to every preconceived notion they have about what an athlete should look like.
I remember playing high school football with a guy that reminds me a lot of Roy Nelson. He was big and fat, a real dough boy…but, he could run hit and do anything anyone else on the team could do, except better. He didn’t look like a great athlete and didn’t get much of a chance at first from the coaches, but he eventually proved himself and ended up being our most valuable player.
Some guys just don’t look like we think an athlete should look. Unfortunately, a lot of those guys never get a shot. I’m glad Roy Nelson is getting his.
Until Fedor fights and beats the Top UFC Heavyweights; then I think writers should stop putting fights like Brock Lesner at a 2nd rank. Fedor hasn’t proven anything uxcept that he knows when to throw a punch when his oppent is getting sloppy. So knock off this nonsense and be an UNBIASED fan trying to write articles that are wrong.
Hey Russ, I’m a big-time UFC fan but more a fan of MMA. You seem like the biased one, toward the UFC. I’ve watched a ton of Fedor’s fights and there is no doubt he is the number 1 heavyweight in the world. He has beaten top UFC heavyweights. You may not think Arlovski is much cause his knockout loss to Rogers but he was a UFC heavyweight champ. Fedor beat Minotauro Nogueria (and not just when he was battling staph like Mir did), he beat him twice!
He dismantled former UFC champ Tim Sylvia in under 40 seconds and former UFC heavyweight champs Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman. Not to mention wins over experienced fighters like Ricardo Arona, Mark Hunt, Matt Lindland, Cro Cop, Gary Goodridge, Fujita and Babalu. Then there is the monster Rogers who he KTFO!
You put Brock, Mir or Cain up against all of those guys and guarantee they lose at least once. Fedor didnt!
Russ you obviously need to watch more than just UFC.
Fedor is number 1, why even argue that?? Fedor FTW!!!!
@word_up128 Roy comes out to the song “Fat” and makes references to his weight and shape simply to counter Dana and everyone else’s crap; He is showing it doesn’t affect him the way they want it to, and that it’s actually a ridiculous thing to complain about. People are bitching about his BELLY and his HAIR?? Come on, this isn’t a fashion show, and it isn’t a modeling show. It’s about kicking ass, and if you can do that with a huge belly hanging over your belt, then more power to you! These superficial complaints show how shallow and pathetic people can really be. Grow up!
Great article. I couldn’t agree more. I was pretty stoked when Roy won. He’s had to do his own self promotion for so long that’s it’s no wonder he comes off as he does. He’s trying to sell himself for a reason, nobody else seems to want to. Good for Roy for doing it on his own.
@MMAGuy
i hope ur not telling me to grow up. He was the “fat guy” long before he was in UFC, so i dont see how he would be countering Dana LOL, hes FAT he knows hes FAT, Dana knows hes FAT, and Roy just dont give a fu*k, thats why he does the things he does IMO…..
@Russ
Russ, you are an idiot! You even don’t know that roid mutatnt name is Lesnar, not Lesner. And he is not #2, he is a roid trash, shitting through a pipe into a bag under his bad.
Dana doesn’t dislike Nelson cuz he’s fat. He dislikes him cuz Nelson has self-confidence that clashes with Dana’s control-freakiness, and Nelson does not fall in line like some of the desperate guys who act as if Dana is their savior for giving them a chance to compete for “a six figure contract”. BFD..for what they do they are underpaid. It’s bad for the show when a guy like Nelson goes against the grain week after week in training and still wins.
What did Nelson say after winning the finale of TUF10? “I’m going to Burger King!”
There are numerous times in this blog entry where you basically pin it to genetics, but that statement at the end was a) intended to antagonize dana white and other critics, and b) is probably true, he probably does live on fast food if you’re gonna be training like that and still have roughly 40 to 50 pounds of fat on your midsection.
TUF is a show designed to take newcomers into the MMA, give them the basic skillset (which includes confidence) to enter a ring, and start their career. Nelson is pretty much at the end of his career if you know anything about how free radicals perform cell damage and mature aging process.
Take a look at Randy Couture, do you think he could still be competing at 45 if he were physically out of shape? Roy Nelson has precious little time to see the folly of his ways, change his diet, and live up to the contract that has been given to him. If he does not, then no one can argue he is trying his hardest, and therefore Dana would have been retroactively correct in all his criticism. Keep in mind the 6 figure salary is coming out of his organization’s funds.
Roy deserves to be in the ufc because he’s a good fighter. He uses that fat to his advantage. Also Russ is a retard who definetly dosent know anything about Fedor. John put it very well about who (Fedor)he’s fought and he still only has 1 pro loss.