Roy Nelson's Fighting Future Decided
A heavyweight bout between former champ Frank Mir (14-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC) and fellow contender Roy Nelson (15-5 MMA, 2-1 UFC) is in the works for a planned Memorial Day weekend event expected to be UFC 130.
A source close to the negotiations told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) verbal agreements are in place for the heavyweight tilt.
An additional source said the contract issues that forced Nelson out of an early-year event aren't expected to be an issue.
A blog for the BetUS.com sportsbook first reported the fight, which is expected to take place May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Nelson vs. Mir likely will be part of the pay-per-view main card.
Mir is coming off an impressive third-round knockout of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic in the headliner of September's UFC 119 event. In the four fights prior, the former titleholder alternated between wins and losses. A TKO victory over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (for the interim belt) was followed by a TKO loss to Brock Lesnar (a title-unification bout). He responded with a submission win over Cheick Kongo but then suffered a quick KO loss to Shane Carwin.
Nelson, meanwhile, looks to rebound from a recent high-profile loss. The former IFL champion won "The Ultimate Fighter 10," which he entered as a heavy favorite, by knocking out Brendan Schaub in the finale. He then posted a 39-second knockout win over Stefan Struve. But in a fight that UFC president Dana White said would earn the winner a title shot, Nelson dropped a decision to fast-rising Junior Dos Santos at UFC 117.
While initially booked for a UFC 125 bout, opponent Carwin was forced off the card with an injury, and Nelson then was sidelined due to contract issues, according to UFC president Dana White. White declined to name the promotion, but sources close to "Big Country" confirmed that former boxing great Roy Jones Jr.'s Square Ring Promotions is the company that claimed to have Nelson tied down.
Nelson headlined a MMA/boxing hybrid card Jones Jr. promoted in March 2009 entitled "March Badness" and was defeated by former UFC heavyweight contender Jeff Monson via unanimous decision.
"These guys go out and sign with these rinky-dink little promotion companies and sign these bad contracts, and let's just say Roy Nelson is involved in a bad contract right now that he had before," White said back in November. "There's a couple of different organizations out there that do it."
Apparently, those issues have been resolved.
