The UFC Fight Night 82 heavyweight co-feature bout between Roy Nelson and Jared Rosholt figured to go one of two ways: Either a classic "Big Country" knockout, or stretch out for a long, long 15 minutes.
It turned out to be the latter on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The bout was smattered with long periods of inaction, but Nelson appeared to want it more and initiated most of the action that did go down. He got a unanimous decision from the judges with a pair of 30-27s and a 29-28.
Rosholt has developed a reputation for a lack of willingness to engage, and Saturday night was no exception. Nelson, for his part, respected Rosholt's wrestling background and wasn't about to rush into anything which would cost him.
This made for a lot of stalking and circling and not much in the way of engaging. But Nelson did gamely moved in on Rosholt and would land heavy hands before Rosholt scampered to safety. Add in the occasional punishing leg kick, and it was enough to give Nelson a no-brainer win.
Nelson (21-12) shook off a three-fight losing streak, while Rosholt (14-3) had a three-fight win streak snapped.