Two heavyweight veterans have agreed to meet at UFC 143. Fresh off recent wins, Roy Nelson (16-6) and Cheick Kongo (17-6-2) will butt heads on February 4th. Terms of the bout have yet to be made official, however both fighters have reached verbal agreements. Nelson announced the news via Twitter.
@roynelsonmma
Roy Nelson MMA Heat News @roynelsonmma & @iamcheickkongo have verbally agreed 2 fight on the card expected 2 take place at the Mandalay Bay @ufc
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The top dog of "The Ultimate Fighter 10", Nelson recently entered back into the win column by retiring MMA legend Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic via third-round TKO at UFC 137. Prior to the victory, the rotund 35-year-old suffered consecutive losses to UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos and former champion Frank Mir.
Kongo, a kickboxing specialist training out of Wolfslair MMA Academy, last tasted defeat in a late-2009 first-round submission loss to Mir. Since then the massive Frenchman his ripped through three victories over Paul Buentello, Pat Barry, and Matt Mitrione.
UFC 143 is slated for February 4th at the Mandalay Bay Events Centers in Las Vegas, Nevada. The night is headlined by a welterweight title bout between Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz.
UPDATE: It appears Nelson was mistaken. The UFC corrected the error with a tweet of their own.
@ufc
UFC "@roynelsonmma: MMA Heat News Roy Nelson and @iamcheickkongo have verbally agreed 2 fight" fyi we've got Kongo's next bout and this isn't it
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UFC 143 fight card:
Welterweight Championship: Georges St. Pierre vs. Nick Diaz
Welterweight: Carlos Condit vs. Josh Koscheck
Featherweight: Erik Koch vs. Dustin Poirier