Werdum vs Nelson on for UFC 143

The UFC has announced that Fabricio Werdum will be making his UFC debut early next year, taking on Roy Nelson at UFC 143 in February.

One of the heavyweight division's most seasoned competitors and very best grapplers, Werdum owns notable victories over Gabriel Gonzaga (2x), John-Olav Einemo, Alistair Overeem, Alexander Emelianenko, Brandon Vera, Mike Kyle, Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva and Fedor Emelianenko. He has career losses to Sergei Kharitonov, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Andrei Arlovski, current UFC heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem. After racking up a three fight winning streak in Strikeforce that included a landmark win over Fedor Emelianenko, the submissions expert was beaten by Alistair Overeem in a lackluster decision during the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. He returns to the UFC for the first time since UFC 90 in 2008 where he was defeated by dos Santos.

Roy "Big Country" Nelson was a seasoned competitor himself when he won The Ultimate Fighter 10 by knocking out Brendan Schaub. The rotund Las Vegan picked up a consecutive knockout over Stefan Struve, but saw his momentum stalled after dropping two straight decisions to Junior dos Santos and Frank Mir. This past October at UFC 137, Nelson got back in the win column by defeating a very game Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic via third-round TKO.

UFC 143 goes down on February 4 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

i can't imagine nelson beating anybody anymore

theyre supposed to be getting rid of the sf hw division after the end of the gp and bringing over barnett, cormier, and bigfoot for sure. maybe the rest.

I see Nelson being able to keep it on the feet long enough to hurt Werdum.

This fight is make or break for him. If he can't gut this out (pun intended), I think his career will end shortly after.

Nelson's cool

he really shouldnt even be fighting at hw but he does well for himself

werdem is an amazingfighter lol

speaking of griggs, why did everyone give up on bobby lashley after that fight? he was winning easily until he got too tired to move. it was like watching a man get ripped apart by a tiger until the tranquilizer darts kick in

feel he's a much better mma prospect than lesnar. lesnar's the bigger name and has some natural tools bobby doesnt but lashley is a better mma wrestler and student

lesnar aint a prospect he was a champion in the highest regard possible. lashely aint faced nobody important so i wouldnt compare him to lesnar. every opponent lesnar faced is more highely regarded

ufc hw division was weak though. the reason couture was champ in the first place was because he saw that and came out of retirement to exploit it.

i consider anybody who has less than 10 fights and can't do shit but wrestle still a prospect

randy beat a great champion although he defended it against a weak challenger. lesnar beat him and defended against 2 great fighters in mir and carwin. the hw division has never been stronger thats why the belt is getting past around like the lhw division