Roy Nelson: Give Me Shot at Champ and I’ll Knock His Block Off

In an interview Monday with the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show, Nelson discussed his recent win over Cheick Kongo, the heavyweight class and much more.

On knocking out Kongo in the first round: “I was actually looking to probably push the fight more in the second. When I pushed him against the fence, I just knew there was a panic. I could just feel that he was starting to breathe heavy, and then when we actually broke, he was actually breathing heavy. I was like, whoa, whoa. Then I was like, OK, now we’re going to put the pressure on him. I just threw two punches and then that wins the fight. I thought it was going to be a little bit more than that.”

On the UFC 160 title fight between champion Cain Velasquez and challenger Antonio Silva: “The way I look at it is just give me one shot at either one of them. Definitely it only takes one shot to be the next heavyweight champion. Junior dos Santos did it.”

On whether the heavyweight division has a shallow talent pool: “No, I don’t think we’re shallow. The difference is, we’re so competitive at the heavyweight division that any given night, one of us can lose. If it was really that talented in the other divisions, they should be turning over left and right because that means it’s very competitive. But in those divisions, I’d say it’s not competitive if you can hold the belt that long.”

On whether he’d fight Daniel Cormier, a matchup Nelson’s manager, Mike Kogan, said didn’t make sense: “I understand where Mike was coming from because if D.C. wants to fight for the title in the heavyweight division, but Cain Velasquez has it, he doesn’t want to actually fight for the belt. Why even bother doing that? I just want to fight Cain then. If Cain has the belt, it’s like, I don’t even need to fight [Cormier]. I just need to beat your boy and then call it a day. … But if he’s going to hang around in the heavyweight division and actually really fight for the belt, then it makes sense to fight him.”

On getting a title shot: “I just want to fight the guy that has the belt. If I lose, then I lose, but just give me that one chance and I bet you I can knock their block off.”

On whether he worries that his sometimes contentious relationship with UFC President Dana White could cost him a title shot: “No, because it’s not really him that actually does it. It’s the other guys that actually own it.”

On how fans can help him get a shot: “My pull’s actually the fans. As long as the fans want to see it and fans want to see certain fights, they’ll make it happen.”

Listen to the full interview (beginning at 2:24:54).