• UFC 117

Nelson v Dos Santos winner promised title shot

ESPN staff
August 7, 2010
Roy Nelson has changed Dana White's opinion © Getty Images
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UFC president Dana White has confirmed that the winner of Saturday night's collision between Roy Nelson and Junior Dos Santos will get the next shot at the heavyweight title.

Nelson and Dos Santos square off at UFC 117 in arguably the most intriguing battle of the night. Nelson is the rotund-bellied TUF 10 winner with back-to-back knockouts to his name, while Dos Santos is one of the most dangerous strikers in the heavyweight division chasing his sixth UFC victory.

Both men are undefeated in their UFC careers, something White did not expect when he first set eyes on "Big Country" Roy Nelson, who appeared out of shape and out of harmony with the UFC president. However, after ESPN.co.uk recently revealed the loser of Saturday's bout will face Shane Carwin, White announced the winner will be next in line for a title shot after Cain Velasquez fights Brock Lesnar in October.

"Everybody who watched season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter knows I was very unimpressed with Big Country and his mouth," White told Sportsnet Connected.

"But he has totally turned that around, and he's won every fight in the UFC by knockout.

"Junior Dos Santos has been knocking guys out for a couple of years now, this is going to be a fun fight and whichever guy wins definitely deserves the next shot at the heavyweight title."

In other news, Thiago Alves will be fined 20 percent of his purse after he failed to make weight for his welterweight clash with Jon Fitch. Alves weighed in at 171.5lbs on Friday.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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