Roy Nelson had a chance to launch himself into UFC title contention at UFC Fight Night 52. He really did.
Taking on sixth-ranked heavyweight Mark Hunt, Nelson found himself facing an almost perfect foe. Hunt isn't especially nimble, quick and diverse on the feet. Fighters with those qualities (Junior dos Santos, Stipe Miocic and Fabricio Werdum) give Nelson fits.
Instead, Hunt is, like Nelson, a powerhouse knockout artist. He goes big, and he looks for the kill at all times.
For the impossibly durable Nelson, that's just fine. Hit Big Country all you want; he's not going down. He's proved that fact time and time again throughout his UFC career. Despite losing five times in 12 Octagon appearances, Nelson always had his fate determined by the judges' scorecards, not by his opponents' fists.
On the other hand, every time Nelson won, it was violent and definitive. All seven of his UFC wins came via knockout, and a Roy Nelson knockout is not your typical knockout. When Big Country connects, it's instant unconsciousness, and it's scary.
The problem with Nelson, then, is that he could never piece his successes together. Fresh off a winning run during Season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter that was punctuated by a ferocious knockout of Brendan Schaub in the finale, Nelson entered the UFC's heavyweight division with considerable momentum.
After knocking out the seven-foot Stefan Struve in his next outing, Nelson quietly entered the title picture. Dos Santos put an end to that, then proceeded to win one more fight and capture the belt for himself.
Sorry, Roy.
Later in Nelson's career, an impressive three-fight winning streak between May of 2012 and April of 2013 was derailed by Miocic at UFC 161. Looking to build on his successes at the time, Nelson took the fight on short notice against the then-relatively unestablished Ohioan, and he paid for his confidence in blood.
Miocic battered Nelson from bell to bell, easily winning a unanimous decision and sending Big Country back to where he started. Had he defeated the rising star, however, Nelson very well may have challenged for the belt in his next fight. A four-fight winning streak would've been difficult to deny.
Sorry, Roy.
Still, Nelson persisted. He ran into a buzz saw named Daniel Cormier after the Miocic fight, but he followed up that decision loss with a main-event victory over aging legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC Fight Night 39.
A picture-perfect first-round knockout netted Nelson another main event gig at UFC Fight Night 52, and we're back to the present day.
Against Hunt, Nelson had the opportunity to take those past failures and flip them on their heads, burying them for eternity. Regardless of his record against top competition, the heavyweight division is thin, and the UFC honors victories.
Back-to-back wins over Nogueira and Hunt would've looked fantastic on Nelson's resume, and there's no doubt he would have landed a top-five fight after that.
Walk off KO! Mark Hunt does in one punch what no other heavyweight in the UFC could do to finish Roy Nelson. Wow! #UFC
— UFCONFOX (@UFCONFOX) September 20, 2014
From there, maybe Nelson finally catches an elite foe with that devastating sledgehammer of a right hand, and then he's fighting for the title. It sounds improbable, especially after Hunt sent Nelson falling to the canvas like a lightning-stricken oak tree, but the reality of the situation is that Nelson was one more win away from UFC gold if he took out Hunt Saturday evening in Japan.
Instead of facing a Miocic, a dos Santos or a Travis Browne in a No. 1 contender's bout, though, Nelson will fight an Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva or a Jared Rosholt, and he'll run out of time before he comes close to title contention again.
Sorry, Roy.
