Intriguing choices, particularly the latter. Dana White has always had a contentious relationship with Nelson and has been critical of his weight, attitude, regiment, and general philosophy to not only the fight game but how a fighter should train and prepare for fights.

One moment immediately comes to mind. After Nelson won the Heavyweights season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” he and Dana White were doing a sit-down interview and Nelson was asked why he didn’t train at a more complete, higher profile camp. In his response, he hemmed and hawed that going into a gym like Extreme Couture, he’d be asked to train guys and that he was reticent to do so. To which Dana scoffed and replied “what’re you going to teach Randy Couture?” (paraphrased)

For what it’s worth, Nelson has seemed to put a little more focus on his cardio and slimmed down slightly over the last year, but still has no direct affiliation with a high profile gym. He’s also still the same old Roy Nelson, which will make for intriguing TV and set up conflicts I’m sure between not only the coaches but Nelson and his own students. Especially since this season will focus on the Welterweight division, which has a tendency of attracting fighters with a hard-nosed work ethic. Perfect choice.

Nelson and Cormier will meet on the televised live finale on FX. This season, they’ll be foregoing the weekly live fights format, which turned out to be an absolute disaster for ratings. Being on Friday nights certainly didn’t help, and I’m hoping they  end up back on Wednesdays or Thursdays for their own sake.