Overall: 90Striking: 91Ground: 90Submissions: 90 Though he is coming off a first round knockout win over Pride legend Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, rating Roy Nelson as being both this high and this balanced is overly generous. Prior to his fight with Stipe Miocic, Big Country wanted to squeeze the UFC for every penny they were worth by waiting till after the fight to sign his new contract. He assumed that he would win and that on a four fight winning streak he would be in the perfect position to negotiate a particularly generous new deal. However, Stipe who is not featured in EAs new game would demonstrate the schematics of how to outclass Roy Nelson en route to a clear-cut unanimous decision victory: it is based on performances like this that Nelson should not be so highly rated by EA Sports. Roys overhand right may be one of the most lethal weapons in all of MMA but we saw in his back-to-back loses to Stipe and Daniel Cormier that it was realistically only potent for one round. Even if Roys heavy right remained dangerous for the whole fight, this shouldnt warrant a striking score of 91. His overall striking game is too lacking in other areas to warrant such a lofty score. Big Country may have scored 13 of his 20 wins via KO/TKO, but these have all come from that ridiculously powerful right all of Nelsons other striking techniques are a ploy to create an opening for his finisher. Nelsons atypical image makes him a fan favourite so there can be no denying that his place in the new MMA game is justified. However, his stats describe a fighter who is incredibly well rounded which Roy Nelson most certainly isnt. Suggested Overall Rating: 85
Hailing from South East London, Sam Heard is an aspiring writer and recent graduate from the University of Warwick. Sam's favourite things include energy drinks, late nights spent watching the UFC with his girlfriend and annihilating his friends at FIFA.
