Dana White absolutely flamed UFC legend Roy Nelson following his UFC 161 loss to Stipe Miocic.
When Roy Nelson emerged in the premier promotion following his success on The Ultimate Fighter, fans immediately gravitated towards him because he painted the opposite picture to what you’d expect from a UFC fighter.
Consistently weighing in near the 265lb heavyweight limit, ‘Big Country’ Nelson donned an iconic image of a big belly and a long mullet accompanied by an equally long beard.
And after a few impressive wins over the likes of Matt Mitrione and Cheick Kongo, Nelson was matched up against Stipe Miocic in a big fight at heavyweight on June 15, 2013.
Dana White flamed Roy Nelson following his loss to Miocic
Following a loss to Stefan Struve, Miocic was hopeful of returning to the win column against the fan favorite, who was riding a three-fight win streak.
As usual, early on in the fight ‘Big Country’ looked to land one of his huge overhands, attempting to put Stipe’s lights out, but Miocic proved too skilled and elusive for Nelson.
Following the fight, UFC boss Dana White used Nelson’s loss as an excuse to utterly flame the heavyweight, calling him out for his unprofessional appearance.
“It doesn’t have to do with Roy’s shape, it has nothing to do with his physique or anything like that, I said it before, Roy came to me one time and said, ‘I’m having a hard time getting sponsors’, I said, ‘Well that’s weird I can’t understand why you would have a hard time getting sponsors.'” White joked at the UFC 161 post-fight press conference.
“I said, ‘How about you cut your hair, lose some weight and get rid of the walkout song, ‘I’m fat’, and take yourself seriously.’ I saw him at the next press conference, his mullet was longer and he grew a beard down to here and he was maybe 6lbs less than the last time I’d seen him.
“Who wants to put their logo on that? Nobody. Nobody wants to put their logo on that. Burger King, well that’s what he thought, did you ever watch a Burger King commercial? It’s all handsome guys, skinny, and pretty girls, you think Burger King wants you to think that’s what you look like if you eat Burger King? Not even Burger King wants that stamp,” White continued.
Nelson signed a new contract with the UFC before leaving for rival promotion
Fortunately Nelson and the UFC figured out their differences and he signed a new contract with the promotion, fighting under the UFC banner for another four years.
In 2017, ‘Big Country’ exited the promotion and signed with Bellator where he won only one of six fights.
And then in 2023, Nelson made a controversial comeback when he signed to fight Dillon Checkler in Jorge Masvidal’s bare-knuckle promotion, scoring a first round KO.
He then clashed with fellow UFC legend Alan Belcher later that year, losing a split decision.