10 great fighters who never got a UFC title shot

#9 Roy Nelson

Roy Nelson fought 7 opponents who went on to UFC title shots

Now fighting in Bellator and firmly on the downswing of his career, Roy Nelson came close to capturing a Heavyweight title shot in the UFC on numerous occasions but could never quite get over the final hurdle. It says a lot that the TUF 10 winner fought 7 opponents who went on to fight for a UFC title.

Nelson debuted in the UFC with his win over Brendan Schaub in the TUF finale, and then knocked out Stefan Struve. Losses to future UFC champion Junior Dos Santos and title challenger Frank Mir sent him back down the ladder, but he bounced back with a win over Mirko Cro Cop. A loss to Fabricio Werdum followed before Nelson went on the best streak of his UFC career – three straight wins.

This should’ve been enough to put him into title contention, but at the time – mid-2013 – new contenders like Antonio Silva and Alistair Overeem were emerging and champ Cain Velasquez was also in the middle of his rivalry with Dos Santos. And so Nelson took a late notice fight with Stipe Miocic and saw his win streak erased.

From there he lost more fights than he won, and eventually left the UFC in 2017 following a loss to Alexander Volkov. But had ‘Big Country’ just picked up one more big win during his UFC tenure – perhaps over Mir in 2011, or over Mark Hunt in 2014 – a title shot likely would’ve been his.