Roy Nelson is a veteran in the game, and when he made it into the Ultimate Fighter house, he was a front-runner for winning the show.  After his impressive KO victory over Brendan Schaub to win the TUF Contract, Roy Nelson is preparing for his first test as a UFC Fighter.

The test, 6’11 Dutch Kickboxer Stefan Struve, who is riding a three fight win streak inside the Octagon.  The two are set to meet at Ultimate Fight Night 21 as the co-main event.

“Stefan definitely has a height and reach advantage,” Nelson responded when asked about his opponent.  “But it’s just one of those things that, as a fighter, you have to deal with.  You have to look past it and do what you need to do to get the W.”

Besides the huge reach advantage, Struve also brings a very well rounded game into the fight.  Even though most fighters bring a game plan to face their opponents, Nelson prefers to just be ready for anything and take what his opponent gives him instead.

With over ten years of experience under his Gracie black belt, there isn’t much that Nelson hasn’t already seen in a fight.

“It’s going to be a feeling-out process. If I feel like I’m winning the stand-up, I’ll probably keep it standing. But if I’m losing the stand-up fight, I’ll look to go to the ground. Hopefully I can win the ground stuff.”

Because of his already long list of wins over other veterans, Nelson believes a win over Struve could place him in the top tier of the UFC heavyweights.

“I feel that I’m right in the mix. Stefan Struve’s right in the mix too, so I think whoever wins will be in the mix for the title hunt. We’re co-headlining the card so we’re definitely people that the fans want to watch.”

While Nelson has always had the skill and ability to compete in the UFC, he chose to travel a different path. It’s been a long journey for Nelson to get to this point, but now that he is in the UFC, he feels at home.

“When I first started fighting, we considered doing the UFC and then I went a whole different route just to kind of build myself and build myself with fans. All roads will always end with the UFC. I just knew that eventually I would be in the UFC, so I just kind of did my own thing.”

Now that Nelson is finally in the UFC, he’s ready to fight the best and he feels that with his experience and skill set that he can be a problem for anyone including current UFC heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar.

“I think in a matchup with Brock (Lesnar) I’d do pretty well; as Frank Mir would say, ‘as long as you’re a big guy.’ You have to be big with Brock so you can’t get muscled. I think styles make matches and I think that I matchup pretty well with anyone in the UFC.”