It’s official. Two fighters have finally emerged from the rag tag group of fighters, former NFL players and one world-renowned street fighter. Former IFL champion, Roy “Big Country” Nelson will face ex-NFLer Brendan Schaub for the Ultimate Fighter championship this Saturday in Las Vegas.

For those who follow MMA and The Ultimate Fighter closely the result wasn’t much of a surprise. He may not have been as flashy as Kimbo or as intimidating as Marcus Jones, but Big Country was hands down the most well rounded fighter on the show. Sure, he looks more suited for a bowling league than a fighting league, but Nelson competed in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club championships and has a black belt in BJJ from the legendary Renzo Gracie. He also has a fundamentally sound stand-up game, which helped him compile a 14-4 professional MMA record before joining TUF.

Schaub is yet another Greg Jackson product to make a name for himself in the UFC. Schaub started training at Nate Marquardt's, High Altitude Martial Arts in Denver after playing professional football for the AFL’s Utah Blaze and spending some time on the Buffalo Bills practice squad. Schaub quickly made a name for himself as a fearsome boxer and became UFC heavyweight, Shane Carwin’s training partner. In fact, Carwin tells us Schaub became a Golden Gloves boxing champ after just six months of training. You don’t need to be a Bert Sugar to know they don’t just hand out Golden Gloves championships to anyone off the street. You have to be a pretty damn good fighter.

So, who has the edge in this contest? Big Country has a slight advantage in the ground game and is much more experienced. But Schaub is younger, bigger and seems to outclass Nelson in the striking department. It’s a tough call.

However, although Schaub has only four wins in his professional career, he won all four by KO and none of the fights went beyond 1:07 of the first round. Look for youth to our class girth this Saturday.

Schaub in Round 2 via TKO.
 
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