437 Strikes was the final count in his UFC career (fightmetric.com) as Roy “Big Country” Nelson stepped out of the Octagon with his mental faculties, more or less in tact after a one sided beating from Stipe Miocic in UFC 161’s co-main event last Saturday.
“[Frank] Mir and Joey Beltran have been hit more as heavyweights, but knocked out. Roy does not get knocked out,” said Dana White on Roy’s newly minted record at the post fight presser later that night.
Fifteen minutes prior to this point (and 106 knuckle sandwiches) Roy was looking at a possible transcendence in his mixed martial arts career. Finally he would hold all the negotiating cards when his old UFC contract was officially expired and his new one would be constructed on his terms, partially in thanks to other’s chomping at the bit to sign him in BellatorFC or OneFC, of whom would guarantee a price jump for Dana and Co. to insure he stayed with them in the big show.
With two possible outcomes for Roy to enter the negotiations for his new contract, coupled with his painfully transparent conflicts with the boss in Dana White, a lot was on the line for him this past weekend.
According to Dana, Roy was offered a new contract before, yet apparently chose to hold out.
“He called [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva and said, ‘Listen, I’m fighting tough guys here and I’m winning, you know?’” Dana recounted, “And Joe said, ‘You’re absolutely right. We’ll get rid of the TUF contract and give you new contract.’ We offered him a deal for more money and Roy said, ‘That’s not enough.’”
Dana conveyed as well that he wants Roy in the UFC, even after the loss. Of course this is just smart business. Roy is a huge draw still, and the UFC wouldn’t have given him a co-main event slot if they didn’t believe this was so.
What fans need to realize is that Roy thrived off being the underdog in his fights. Hell, that’s why we all tuned in to begin with. Here’s a fat guy that can knock out any of the chiseled bad asses at the pinnacle of the sport.
A statistic that says he can take more punishment than anyone else will only endear him to the fans even more, therefore his loss to Stipe Miocic won’t be as detrimental to his contract negotiations as originally perceived.
Plus consider the way he lost. Sure it was lopsided, but it wasn’t definitive. He wasn’t embarrassingly knockout out or submitted. He still left the cage on his feet, and that’s why he’s still in the sport when many of his peers slowly drifted off in to the twilight of their careers.
Just think about the way he secured this messed up record to begin with. He’s fought ten of the baddest dudes on the planet, most of which have been within the top five heavyweights in the world, if not past UFC title holders to begin with, and he’s survived, if not having finished some of them to begin with. Names like Junior Dos Santos, Cro Cop, Stefan Struve, Fabricio Werdum, Frank Mir, and Cheick Kongo, are only a few on the list. Before the UFC he was fighting guys like Andrei Arlovski and Ben Rothwell. Those aren’t small potatoes either.
Roy refuses to go away, and neither will his penchant for knock outs against the monsters of the sport. When Dana and the Fertitta brothers sit down with him, expect some deep pocket books to be opened that day.
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