Built from Roy Nelson’s own numbers — record, form, fighting style and standout rate. Not reported prose. Power striker
6' 0" orthodox power striker campaigning at Heavyweight. 9 UFC wins — 8 KO/TKO, 1 decision.
The facts, plainly — vitals and record from public UFC statistics; nickname, nationality and camp from the public fighter register. A field we can't source stays “pending”; it never shows a fake value. Where a fighter was born and where they fight out of come from their Wikipedia entry; where we hold neither, the hometown shown is Sherdog’s. The social accounts are the ones linked from the fighter’s own official athlete page — we don’t match handles by name. The UFC record is counted from the official results themselves, and is dated by the first and last bout it counts.
| Nickname | Big Country |
| Nationality | United States |
| Hometown (per Sherdog) | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Camp | Country Club |
| Height | 6' 0" |
| Reach | 73" |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Age | 50 |
| Date of birth | Jun 20, 1976 |
| Weight | 263 lbs. |
| Pro record | 22-14 |
| UFC record | UFC 9-10 first fight 2009-12-05 · last fight 2017-04-15 |
| Finish split | 9 UFC wins — 8 KO/TKO, 1 decision |
| Social |
Every week Roy Nelson has stood in the official UFC rankings, one row per table, each band running from the table that set it to the table that changed it.
Official UFC.com official rankings, 2013–present · rankings of 6 October 2026
A published rank holds until the next table changes it, so a band runs from the table that set it to the table that ended it — that is how a ranking works, and it is why an unbroken reign is drawn unbroken. Nothing is interpolated: the band is the last published STATUS, never a rank in between, and the hatched stretches are weeks the archive holds no table for at all. The champion band sits above #1 because a belt is not a rank. The three pound-for-pound tables — the combined one to January 2020, then the Men's and Women's ones — share a row, because they are one standing under three names.
Career averages over Roy Nelson’s UFC bouts, straight from public UFC statistics — the same eight numbers on his official record. These are the source’s figures, not our read: what we make of them is the card below.
Six 0–100 scores, each a percentile rank against the Heavyweight field — not against the whole roster. Tap any i for what a score measures.
Where the strikes go — and where they land on him. Career UFC totals, straight off the tape.
Significant strikes only, as recorded by UFCStats, across the fighter's whole UFC career. Shares are raw counts — nothing here is modelled or smoothed. Accuracy is landed ÷ attempted and comes from the per-round tape, which covers slightly fewer fights than the totals do. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.
The level change — how often it lands, how often it is stopped. Career UFC rates, straight off the tape.
Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (6.29 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.
Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.
Pro record: 22-14. In the UFC: 9-10. Roy Nelson’s last 8 UFC bouts, most recent first — the result in the cage, not our pick.
Straight off the official UFC fight record. Card names are left off on purpose: the only event labels in our data are derived, and we’d rather print nothing than print one that’s wrong.
6 post-fight bonuses since the UFC’s bonus programme began in 2006 — 1 Fight of the Night, 1 Performance of the Night, 4 Knockout of the Night.
| Date | Award | Opponent | Event | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-04-11 | POTN | Performance of the Night | Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira | UFC Fight Night: Minotauro vs Nelson |
| 2013-04-27 | KOTN | Knockout of the Night | Cheick Kongo | UFC 159: Jones vs Sonnen |
| 2012-05-26 | KOTN | Knockout of the Night | Dave Herman | UFC 146: Dos Santos vs Mir |
| 2012-02-04 | FOTN | Fight of the Night | Fabricio Werdum | UFC 143: Diaz vs Condit |
| 2010-03-31 | KOTN | Knockout of the Night | Stefan Struve | UFC Fight Night: Florian vs Gomi |
| 2009-12-05 | KOTN | Knockout of the Night | Brendan Schaub | The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale |
The UFC's post-fight bonus programme began in 2006, so every total here is a career total since 2006. A fighter who fought only before then has no bonuses because the award did not exist yet. Fight of the Night is a shared award and is credited to both fighters. Performance, Knockout and Submission of the Night are individual awards, credited to the fighter the official record names.
Awards whose recipient the official list does not name are credited to nobody, so these counts are a floor: 245 of 1,339 Performance of the Night and 1 of 180 Submission of the Night awards are unassigned as of 11 October 2026.
| Date | Opponent | Method | Rd | Event | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-04-15 | L | Alexander Volkov | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC on FOX: Johnson vs. Reis |
| 2016-09-24 | W | Antonio Silva | KO/TKO | R2 | UFC Fight Night: Cyborg vs. Lansberg |
| 2016-07-07 | L | Derrick Lewis | Decision (split) | R3 | UFC Fight Night: Dos Anjos vs. Alvarez |
| 2016-02-06 | W | Jared Rosholt | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs Thompson |
| 2015-09-26 | L | Josh Barnett | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | UFC Fight Night: Barnett vs Nelson |
| 2015-03-14 | L | Alistair Overeem | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC 185: Pettis vs Dos Anjos |
| 2014-09-20 | L | Mark Hunt | KO/TKO | R2 | UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs Nelson |
| 2014-04-11 | W | Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira | KO/TKO | R1 | UFC Fight Night: Minotauro vs Nelson |
| 2013-10-19 | L | Daniel Cormier | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC 166: Velasquez vs Dos Santos 3 |
| 2013-06-15 | L | Stipe Miocic | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC 161: Evans vs Henderson |
| 2013-04-27 | W | Cheick Kongo | KO/TKO | R1 | UFC 159: Jones vs Sonnen |
| 2012-12-15 | W | Matt Mitrione | KO/TKO | R1 | The Ultimate Fighter: Team Carwin vs. Team Nelson Finale |
| 2012-05-26 | W | Dave Herman | KO/TKO | R1 | UFC 146: Dos Santos vs Mir |
| 2012-02-04 | L | Fabricio Werdum | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC 143: Diaz vs Condit |
| 2011-10-29 | W | Mirko Filipovic | KO/TKO | R3 | UFC 137: Penn vs Diaz |
| 2011-05-28 | L | Frank Mir | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC 130: Rampage vs Hamill |
| 2010-08-07 | L | Junior Dos Santos | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC 117: Silva vs Sonnen |
| 2010-03-31 | W | Stefan Struve | KO/TKO | R1 | UFC Fight Night: Florian vs Gomi |
| 2009-12-05 | W | Brendan Schaub | KO/TKO | R1 | The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale |
Every date links to that bout’s own page. Card names come from the official event record; where the UFC ran two cards on one date, or that record has no row for it, the Event column is left empty rather than filled with a guess.
The 11 cities Roy Nelson has fought a UFC bout in and the hometown on the record. Every pin was looked up by name in OpenStreetMap’s gazetteer and stored with the answer it gave; nothing here is estimated.
Coastline: Natural Earth (public domain). Pins: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Every host city and camp on one map.