Eight years ago at Grappler’s Quest, while Mir was a few fights into his UFC career, he ventured back to his roots entering a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition where he met Renzo Gracie black belt Roy Nelson.
At that time, Nelson hadn’t even done mixed martial arts yet, but with just grappling happening in the match-up, he got the best of Mir by points.
Now almost a decade later with the two heavyweights set to duke it out in the co-main event at UFC 130 in Las Vegas, everyone seems to want to talk about that grappling match, but Nelson isn’t really sure why.
“I hadn’t even done MMA yet. I wasn’t even thinking MMA yet. I was still just teaching jiu-jitsu and MMA fighters how to be MMA fighters,” Nelson recalled about the time period when he grappled Mir.
With both Nelson and Mir sitting near the top of the heavyweight division, this fight is more about the present and future, not the past. Both fighters hail from Las Vegas and have trained together in the past, but have taken vastly different directions to get where they are now.
Mir has been employed by the UFC since 2001, he’s been a multi-time heavyweight champion, and consistently ranked in the Top 10 over the years. Nelson has had to fight for his respect quite a bit more over the last few years.
He gets a few jokes thrown his way for his robust belly, but when he steps in the cage his talent can’t be denied. Still, Nelson had to work a much different path than Mir to earn his way into the UFC.
After winning the IFL heavyweight title and the organization eventually folding, Nelson decided to try his hand on “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show, where he won Season 10 and earned his shot in the UFC.
Now, coming back from his first loss since stepping foot in the Octagon, Nelson wasn’t so much concerned about facing Mir as much as he wanted to face the best heavyweight available. Much like when no one in the heavyweight division wanted to face Junior Dos Santos, Nelson isn’t afraid to step up to any challenge and he considers it an honor to face the former heavyweight champion this weekend.
“I’m the guy that wants to fight everybody at least once and maybe twice after I fight everybody once, but I just want to fight the best in the world,” Nelson said when co-hosting MMAWeekly Radio.
Source: mmaweekly.com
