36°F
weather icon Clear

Roy Nelson says the UFC became ‘smoke and mirrors’ to him

Roy Nelson will face his first battle in the Bellator cage when he takes on Javy Ayala at Bellator 183. The heavyweight discusses his departure from the UFC, why Bellator’s structure makes more sense to him and talks about evolving his style with his head coach Brother Fareed.

Fareed also talks about how he came to work with Nelson for this fight. In preparation for Ayala, he says he isn’t trying to change what the heavyweight does in the cage. Instead, he hopes to improve his fundamentals.

Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal will corner Nelson when he faces Ayala. Lawal, who has worked with Nelson throughout his career, says Ayala will have to pick which way he wants to lose. However, he isn’t predicting the fight to go the distance.

Bellator 183 will take place at the SAP Arena in San Jose, Calif., on Sept. 23.

Check out the videos above.

More MMA: Follow all of our MMA and UFC coverage online at CoveringTheCage.com and @CoveringTheCage on Twitter.

Contact Heidi Fang at hfang@reviewjournal.com. Follow @HeidiFang on Twitter.

MOST READ
Exco Sidebar
Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
MORE STORIES
THE LATEST
UFC-occupied buildings in Las Vegas sell for $23.6M

The off-market sale was brokered by Colliers and features two buildings which are 70 percent occupied by the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

UFC reaches $375M settlement in class-action lawsuit

The UFC reached another settlement with one of the two class-action litigants, agreeing Thursday to pay the former fighters $375 million after a previous agreement was thrown out by a Nevada district judge.