In an important heavyweight tilt which will be the co-main event at UFC 130, 2 time UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir tangles with winner of season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter, Roy “Big Country” Nelson. While Nelson is an accomplished grappler and has scored some stellar knockouts in the UFC (Struve, Schaub), it is actually an indefinable and intangible skill of Nelson which Mir notes as most prominent. Toughness.

“The tools he has are very effective”, says Mir before adding, “I think Roy’s greatest asset is his toughness.” That toughness was most apparent when Nelson squared off against Junior Dos Santos in his last entrance into the UFC Octagon. While Dos Santos, arguably the most feared striker in the UFC, whaled away on Nelson for the majority of the 3 rounds of action, Nelson never surrendered or slipped out of consciousness. While being recorded as his first loss in the UFC, fifth in his career, it was a moral victory for Nelson, who garnered much praise for his gusty performance and was commended heavily by the victorious Dos Santos for his resilience.

Mir is well aware of his opponent’s fortitude but still feels the chief ingredient to defeating Nelson is by pushing a forceful pace. “I think the key to beating Roy, not to move backwards, I think his style plays into people who try to fade away from him”, notes Mir, who is as much respected as an analyst and commentator of MMA as he is for his exploits in the cage. “The fights that I’ve seen of Roy when people have done well with him is when they move forward.” Dos Santos, Jeff Monson, Andrei Arlovski, Ben Rothwell and Josh Curran make up the list of competitors that Mir would like to have his name added to, and give Nelson his sixth loss in mixed martial arts competition.

Mir’s last defeat was by KO via the mammoth hands of Shane Carwin, but he is coming off a knockout victory of Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, and his previous win over Cheick Kongo was a submission victory set up by a fantastic knock-down with powerful right that Mir stepped into. “When I hit Cheick Kongo the punch alone threw him halfway across the Octagon”, comments Mir, who feels that his height, length, speed as well as power will come into play in this fight. “If he makes a mistake, I’m a lot bigger than Dos Santos and I believe I hit a lot harder”, adds the Las Vegas born heavyweight, who is searching for his 15th professional MMA victory on May 28th at UFC 130. While known for cat-like reflexes on the mat with a hyperactive and dangerous ground game, Mir also senses being just as on the ball on the feet will be a crucial path to scoring the “W”. “Constantly peppering him with shots as he comes in and making him pay when I do hit him with something”, notes Mir as being one of the core tenets of his standup strategy for his fight.

The two Las Vegas natives have been friends for quite some time but it isn’t going to impact the competitive aspect of the bout. Mir assures us that it’s going to be all business at UFC 130 when he steps into the cage with Nelson. “On the night of the fight, neither one of us is going to pull any punches–if I catch him in something I’m going to try and hurt him with it” Mir has done just that 8 of the 14 times he’s had his hand raised in the sport. We’ll see if he can pull it once more on May 28th.

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TALE OF THE TAPE

HEIGHT
FRANK MIR
6’3

ROY NELSON
6’0

WEIGHT

FRANK MIR
252 pounds

ROY NELSON
263 pounds

RECORD

FRANK MIR
14-5-0

ROY NELSON
15-5-0

KNOCKOUTS

FRANK MIR
3

ROY NELSON
8

SUBMISSIONS

FRANK MIR
8

ROY NELSON
5

STREAK

FRANK MIR
Win 1

ROY NELSON
Lost 1

MMA TITLES

FRANK MIR
1x UFC Heavyweight Champion
1x UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion

ROY NELSON
International Fight League heavyweight champion
The Ultimate Fighter Heavyweights Winner

AWARDS

FRANK MIR
Submission of the Night (versus Brock Lesnar)

ROY NELSON
Knockout of the Night (2 times: versus Brendan Schaub, Stefan Struve)

MARTIAL ARTS BELTS

FRANK MIR
Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ricardo Pires

ROY NELSON
Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu