Roy Nelson reminds the world that he would punch his grandma in the face for the right price.

Roy-Nelson

 

Despite four knockout of the night awards in his three years in the UFC, his massive fan following and general popularity among the average fans, Roy Nelson doesn’t believe he’ll be getting a title shot, believing politics dictate title shots. It may be remarks like the former that are keeping Roy from getting a title shot, or it could be his somewhat shaky relationship with UFC upper management. Roy has always been game for a fight, saying he’ll take on anyone, at any time and on little notice, but to him, the UFC isn’t appreciative:

Me personally, I’ve never gotten a phone call saying, ‘Hey, we appreciate you.’ I stopped trying to think about how the UFC operates. It’s like trying to understand a woman. I don’t know if my management has gotten any phone calls, if they’re working on a fight, or anything like that. I’m always down to fight, but I have management in place to handle those things. My manager makes those decisions so it can be the best for me from a business standpoint, too. If it were up to me, I’d be fighting everybody every week.

If it were up to us, Roy would be fighting every week too. But we think that would probably put a fairly heavy financial burden on the UFC:

I’m always down to give the fans what they want. The thing is, you want to be 100%, but if you’re down with the organization, then you’re going to do what they want. If they say, ‘Hey, you want to fight next week?’ Then yeah, you do it. As far as the best performance fight that you can hype up, well, a lot of people want to see Nelson / dos Santos II, Nelson / Velasquez I – there’s a lot of fights to make. We’ll just have to see.

It all depends on how it’s orchestrated. I’m sure you would fight Ronda Rousey tomorrow if they offered you 30 million dollars (for the record, I like my arms where they’re at, so I’d have to decline that offer). It all comes down to money. If the money is right, I’ll fight anybody. Any time. I’ll hit my grandma in the face if the price is right [laughs].

The counterpoint to Roy’s feelings that title shots are politics (which they are, but bear with me here for the point of the example), Roy still hasn’t been able to beat that great opponent. He lost to Werdum, he lost to Mir and he lost to JDS, all in bloody and brutal battles, but that won’t stop Roy from speaking his mind:

I think they’re business people. That’s why Chael fought last month. They don’t want Mark Hunt to win. They want Junior dos Santos to fight Cain Velasquez again. It just makes sense on paper. That fight can make a lot of money. When Overeem got beat by Bigfoot, that kind of messed some things up.

I make money no matter who I fight. Do I want a shot at the belt? Yes, of course I do. Put it this way, I am Barry Sanders on the Detroit Lions. You love to watch me, but you’ll never see me play in the Super Bowl. It’s just one of those things. It’s about politics. It’s not about fighting.

Damn you, Roy. Now I feel bitter for no good reason. I feel like Roy should be more jolly.

Thanks to Steph Daniels for yet another great interview.