In the days leading up to any fight, every fighter will be asked, at least once, about his or her training camp. Invariably, the fighter will give the standard answer that this camp was the greatest camp they have ever had, and that (insert opponent’s name here) is in for the fight of their life. It’s one of those questions that most will avoid because the answer almost always follows some form of that exact script.
Rarely will a fighter say that their camp was anything short of excellent. Even rarer is a fighter describing their camp as “the crappiest camp that I’ve ever had” but that’s exactly the way Roy Nelson described (via MMAFighting.com) the training camp he had for his UFC 166 co-main event matchup against Daniel Cormier.
The reasons behind the bad camp focused around losing coaches and training partners. Nelson’s boxing coach Jeff Mayweather was hospitalized early in the training process after suffering a mild heart attack. Nelson then lost training partners Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and Ryan Martinez.
Nelson said of his camp:
It was just one of those camps where anything possibly that could’ve happened, happened. So you just kind of deal with (it). I mean, I’ve been in the game long enough to know what I’m supposed to do and put the work in. And at the end of the day, that’s what it is.
Saturday’s fight with Cormier will be the first on Nelson’s recently signed nine-fight deal with the UFC.
Nelson (19-8) is currently ranked ninth in the UFC’s heavyweight division. Cormier (12-0) enters UFC 166 as the No. 2 ranked heavyweight.
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