Josh Barnett Currently Favoured To Beat Roy Nelson on September 26th
Published on September 23rd, 2015 11:18 pm ESTThe UFC will be returning to the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan on Saturday, September 26th with UFC Fight Night: Barnett vs Nelson.
The main event of the card will see Josh Barnett take on Roy "Big Country" Nelson in a Heavyweight tilt. This is quite the interesting match-up, as both Barnett and Nelson are tremendous grapplers who are fully capable of ending a fight with their striking. Roy Nelson, in particular, has a right hand that has turned out the lights of many Heavyweight fighters in the UFC.
This will be Josh Barnett's first fight in nearly two years, as he was last seen in the Octagon at UFC 168. Barnett was quickly knocked out in that fight, dropping his record to 1-1 since he elected to return to the UFC.
Roy Nelson, on the other hand, desperately needs a win. Nelson has dropped his last two fights and is 1-4 in his last five tilts. At one point, Roy Nelson was starting to be talked about for a possible title shot, but his recent losses have sent him tumbling down the rankings. Nelson, who is nearly 40 years of age, desperately needs a win on Saturday night if he has any hopes of possibly making one final run at the title.
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Josh Barnett is the clear favourite to win on Saturday night - here are the current betting odds:
Josh Barnett, 1.40
Roy Nelson, 3.00
The general consensus is that Barnett will be able to bully Nelson with his strength and grappling prowess. Nelson, on the other hand, will likely be relying on his right hand finding its mark, which could be difficult against such a seasoned fighter. In addition, Barnett is incredibly tough and incredibly hard to stop.
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This will be an interesting fight that doesn't really impact the title picture in the Heavyweight division very much. Both Barnett and Nelson are characters, so there should be plenty of hamming it up for the Japanese crowd on Saturday night. One thing is for sure, the fight should be entertaining at the very least.
