Roy Nelson: ‘MMA’s business model is WWE’
Geno Mrosko: Dana White has been saying that you’re sort of in a holding pattern in your UFC career because…
Geno Mrosko: Dana White has been saying that you’re sort of in a holding pattern in your UFC career because of what’s going on with the contract situation with Roy Jones Jr. and Square Ring Promotions. Have you talked to him about all this and everything that’s going on?
Roy Nelson:Actually, I haven’t. I think he’s been busy with promoting all the other UFC stuff. Me personally, I just wait by the phone, wait for the attorneys to call me and tell me what’s going on and kind of just go from there. I mean, at the end of the day, I’m going to be fighting in 2011.
GM: A lot of times on your Twitter you talk about pro wrestling. Can you talk a little bit about it, are you a pro wrestling fan?
RN: Oh yeah, old school with the you know, with Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, I mean, Big Van Vader, Junkyard Dog. I’m an old school wrestling fan.
GM: People try to draw, similarities between pro wrestling and MMA and the business models and things like that. What do you think about that, are there a lot of similarities in your eyes?
RN: I think MMA’s business model is WWE. You got Vince McMahon who is Dana White. You’ve got to have a face or a front man. And then after that you’ve just got the stars to build up and then you’ve got your… I would say definitely. I think Vince McMahon wrote the road map for how to make a successful MMA show.
GM:Would you ever consider, let’s say hypothetically your MMA career doesn’t work out, would you ever consider a career in pro wrestling?
RN:: Actually, my fighting career will work out and I’ll still do professional wrestling.
GM: Is there anything that you think can be done to improve on judging in MMA?
RN: Definitely. I think we should probably go to five three minute rounds for just your normal fight and then 10 three minute rounds for championships. And I think you definitely get different, you know, once you get taken down, there’s no stalling. There’s no referee picking you back up. If you can’t get off your back that’s just too freaking bad. But it’s only three minutes, you’ve got to watch it and then you start back up on your feet, three minutes and it’s a new one and if you win the round, you win the round. You can still do the 10 point must system. But now you’re talking 50 points or 100 points. Now it’s like, if you have one bad round, it’s hard to come back from that.
GM: What was the TUF house really like? You said it was your choice to go there, what was it really like having to be there?
RN: It was definitely an experience that you only want to do once. It’s like if you’ve ever been to jail and you’re like, “Dude, I’ll never go back there,” but you kind of got scared straight; it’s definitely one of those type of things cause I can imagine jail being a lot better – You can get a college education, you can watch TV, you get conjugal visits, you get books. That’s all in jail; in the TUF house you don’t get none of that.
GM: Where did the whole Burger King gimmick come from? What made you decide on Burger King is that just what you like over all the other fast food joints?
RN: No, actually, it was because I’m a smart business man and a self-promoter and I was looking on the ring at who would be a good sponser to get after I got out of the TUF house and it was Burger King. So I figured I would give them a little free promo and go from there.
GM: Has it worked out at all for you since then?
RN: No, that’s why I just eat Taco Bell.