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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
With less than two weeks before UFC 160 on pay-per-view, Mark Hunt is still not in the United States, casting doubt on whether or not he'll be able to go through with his fight against Junior dos Santos on the card. Hunt was held back in his home country of New Zealand over the weekend, with a 2002 arrest in Las Vegas not allowing him to enter the country.
The UFC has been working on sorting out the issue, and he believes it will all be figured out, but he still hasn't been able to fly out. He said on Saturday he thought he'd be able to fly out on Tuesday of this week, but he still isn't out.
With Hunt's status in limbo, fellow heavyweight Roy Nelson was asked on Friday's "Inside MMA" program on AXS TV whether or not he'd be interested in stepping in against dos Santos if the UFC needed him. Though he didn't jump at the idea, he made it clear he's ready to fight whomever the UFC puts in front of him.
"I know Daniel [Cormier] wanted to fight me, so Daniel's on my list, he's on my radar," Nelson said (via Yahoo.com). "JDS actually wasn't on my radar unless he had the belt. Right now, my biggest focus is Cain Velasquez and Bigfoot [Antonio Silva] - whoever wins out of that one. I'm just eyeing the gold, but I'm always down to fight anybody."
Penick's Analysis: The UFC is moving forward as if Hunt-JDS is still on, and that's the fight that people would most like to see, but a Nelson-JDS rematch wouldn't be the worst replacement if Hunt is unable to get to Las Vegas. It's been long enough since they fought (nearly three years), so it's not a fight that would be a rehash from just a year ago or anything. Hopefully Hunt's able to get his flight out here this week to get acclimated to the time difference and shake off the jet lag in time for the fight next week, but if the UFC needs someone, and Nelson's interested, it's a fight that could work.
[Roy Nelson art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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