Roy Nelson re-signs with the UFC, fights Cormier at UFC 166

Big country pens new 9 fight deal, plans to retire with the UFC

by John Haigh @JohnBJayHaigh

UFC heavyweight Roy "Big Country" Nelson's new UFC contract is a nine fight deal, according to what Nelson told Ariel Helwani on Tuesday. The new deal was announced on UFC Tonight, as well as the first fight of the deal with Nelson (19-8) squaring off against Daniel Cormier (12-0). The fight will be the co main event on October 19th at UFC 166 in Houston Texas, underneath the Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos rematch

Nelson now 37, said that he is relatively happy with the new deal, using the term relative saying he didn't get everything he wanted. But he said he expects to finish his career in the UFC and wants to fight for another five years.

Nelson was on a three fight win streak, all via knockout in less than three minutes off fighting over Dave Herman, Matt Mitrione and Cheick Kongo going into UFC 161 in Winnipeg. The streak had gained him the most popularity of his nine year career. But he couldn't match the speed, stamina, wrestling ability and footwork of Stipe Miocic in his last fight scoring a unanimous decision loss on June 15th.

Getting Cormier as an opponent, largely based on Nelson goading the former Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix winner, is the kind of match up somewhat unusual after such a decisive loss to a lower ranked opponent.

A win over Cormier would reverse all the damage of the Miocic loss and put Nelson back into contention in the UFC heavyweight division. It would also derail all the talk regarding Cormier dropping down to Light Heavyweight and getting an immediate title shot against the winner of the Jon Jones vs Alexander Gustafsson.