As expected Roy Nelson (15-6 MMA, 2-2 UFC) and fellow heavyweight Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (27-9-2 MMA, 4-5 UFC) will meet in October at UFC 137.
MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) passed along news of the bout on Wednesday, and UFC executives since have made it official and stated verbal agreements are in place for the fight.
UFC 137 takes place Oct. 29 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
The night's main card, including a Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz welterweight championship main event, airs on pay-per-view, though it's not clear if Nelson vs. Filipovic will be part of the broadcast.
Nelson, who won "The Ultimate Fighter 10," is back in business after back-to-back losses to Junior Dos Santos at UFC 117 and former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir at UFC 130, the latter of which put his career in the big-man division in question. However, Nelson contends that his recent exhaustion was the result of walking pneumonia he contracted in the buildup to UFC 130, and his loss to Dos Santos was directly attributable to a knee injury he suffered early in the fight.
"Cro Cop" was knocked out cold a second consecutive time in his most recent appearance at UFC 128 against Brendan Schaub. Following that scary scene, which followed a last-second knockout to Frank Mir at UFC 119, White went as far as to say Filipovic's fighting career was done. However, White softened that stance in recent interviews and said that he owed the former PRIDE open-weight champion another fight on his current contract and that it would fulfill the terms of the deal.
The Nelson vs. Filipovic bout very well could be a loser-leaves-town match.
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