by MMAjunkie.com Staff on Apr 23, 2012 at 7:55 pm ET Barring any more hiccups, UFC 146's talent shuffle is almost done. UFC president Dana White announced today via Twitter that heavyweight Roy Nelson (16-7 MMA, 3-3 UFC), who was left without an opponent when Antonio Silva (16-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) was promoted to a co-main event bout with Cain Velasquez (9-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC), is now scheduled to fight onetime title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga (13-6 MMA, 8-5 UFC). Gonzaga was originally scheduled to face Shane Del Rosario at UFC 146. Del Rosario (11-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) now awaits a new foe. UFC 146 takes place May 26 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Main-card fights air live on pay-per-view while preliminary-card fights land on Facebook and FX. The root of the shuffle, of course, is the replacement of Alistair Overeem with Frank Mir in a title bout against champ Junior Dos Santos. Overeem was removed from the card this past Friday when White decided against waiting it out to see whether Overeem would get licensed after failing a pre-fight drug test for the May 26 card. That decision eventually left Nelson without a dance partner. Now, he'll look to get back on the winning track against Gonzaga after going 1-3 against top-tier competition. Decision losses to Dos Santos, Mir and Fabricio Werdum dented his stock, though a win over Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic at UFC 137 likely saved his career. After more than a year on the sidelines, Gonzaga returned to the octagon at UFC 142 and notched a first-round submission over Dos Santos training partner Edinaldo Oliveira. His previous stint didn't go so well. After losing to the-champ Randy Couture, he went 3-4 in the UFC. A win over Nelson would undoubtedly rejuvenate his career, and the same goes for Nelson.
I guess this is a good fight on paper. 2 guys who aren't afraid to come forward and go for a KO. I don't see it going the distance.
Damn, Roy's BJJ seems pretty good, but he just took a total facesmash from Werdum. Gonzaga can punch. This is gonna be a slugfest.
This will be a bore. They both will be exhausted by round two. It will be sloppy bore. The card should have looked like this. Mir vs JDS Cain vs Werdum Big foot vs Nelson Struve vs Hunt Gonzaga vs that new kid
I didn't read anything on Del Rosario and a new opponent. I hope they get him in there with someone. Him, Browne, and Rothwell should be brought up a few notches and tested. Anthony brought up Mitrione, maybe a Meathead/Del Rosario matchup:Thumbs:
After the KO of Cro-Cop with the head kick, Gonzaga fell in love with striking. He ended up costing him as he ended up on the painful end of some striking duels. Luckily Gonzaga has gone back to focusing on BJJ, which is where the dude made his name. I am interested in this bout only to see what each guy's strategy is. Otherwise I think the UFC has really mangled this card and made far less interesting match-ups. I would loved to have seen one of the new crop of HW's (Browne, Russow, Del Rosario) added to this card. Oh well.
