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Events · UFC 185: Pettis vs Dos Anjos · Roy Nelson vs Alistair Overeem
From the tape · 14 Mar 2015

Roy Nelson vs Alistair Overeem

UFC 185: Pettis vs Dos Anjos · Dallas, Texas, USA
Result

Alistair Overeem beat Roy Nelson

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
HeavyweightMain cardReferee · Herb Dean

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

RN
Red corner RoyNelson“Big Country”Country Club · Las Vegas, Nevada
VSOn the tape
AO
Blue corner AlistairOvereem“The Demolition Man”Elevation Fight Team · Amsterdam
Heavyweight3 rounds14 Mar 2015
The story going in
  • Every one of Nelson’s 7 UFC wins came inside the distance.
  • Has finished 2 of 3 UFC wins.
  • 13 UFC bouts deep — 7 more than Overeem.
  • Is 28 points more accurate striking than Nelson.
22-14
Record
47-19
38
Age
−4 yr34
6' 0"
Height
+4″6' 4"
73″
Reach
+7″80″
Orthodox
Stance
Orthodox
+713
UFC bouts
6
+33%7/7100% of wins
Finishes
2/367% of wins
Country Club
Gym
Elevation Fight Team
Las Vegas, Nevada
From
Amsterdam
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

3 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Roy Nelson11 sig landed
HEAD82%9 of 22BODY18%2 of 3LEGS0%0 landed
Alistair Overeem25 sig landed
HEAD20%5 of 6BODY48%12 of 14LEGS32%8 of 8
11 of 25
Sig.
strikes
25 of 28
0 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 5Clinch 6Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 24Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Nelson firstSteve Armstrong9–10Derek Cleary9–10Sal D'Amato9–10
Round 25:00 of action
Roy Nelson5 sig landed
HEAD60%3 of 25BODY40%2 of 3LEGS0%0 of 1
Alistair Overeem18 sig landed
HEAD33%6 of 10BODY28%5 of 10LEGS39%7 of 9
5 of 29
Sig.
strikes
18 of 29
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 1
0:00
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 3Clinch 2Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 17Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Nelson firstSteve Armstrong9–10Derek Cleary9–10Sal D'Amato9–10
Round 35:00 of action⚡ 1 KD NelsonEnded 5:00
Roy Nelson7 sig landed
HEAD86%6 of 21BODY0%0 landedLEGS14%1 of 2
Alistair Overeem19 sig landed
HEAD37%7 of 13BODY37%7 of 9LEGS26%5 of 5
7 of 23
Sig.
strikes
19 of 27
0 of 3
Take-
downs
0 of 1
0:34
Control
0:00
1
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 6Clinch 1Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 18Clinch 0Ground 1
Judges · this round · Nelson firstSteve Armstrong9–10Derek Cleary9–10Sal D'Amato9–10

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Herb Dean
Roy NelsonAlistair Overeem
Official totals — Roy Nelson first
JudgeTotal
Steve Armstrong27–30
Derek Cleary2.0 avg spread · 42% wide27–30
Sal D'Amato2.1 avg spread · 46% wide27–30

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 17 scored, Roy Nelson first · unofficial

Dallas Winston BloodyElbow.com26–30
Severe MMA.com27–30
John Pollock Fight Network27–30
Cage Pages.com27–30
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com27–30
Jason Floyd TheMMAReport.com27–30
MM ABrasil.com.br27–30
Rob Tatum CombatPress.com27–30
MM AJunkie.com27–30
Jordan Breen Sherdog.com27–30
TJ DeSantis Sherdog.com27–30
Chris Nelson Sherdog.com27–30
Cory Braiterman MMAMania.com27–30
Wrestling Observer28–29
Chuck Mindenhall MMAFighting.com28–29
Nathan McCarter BleacherReport.com28–29
Fergus O' Farrell Setanta28–29

Fan vote · unofficial

30-27 Overeem · 52%29-28 Overeem · 21%30-28 Overeem · 12%30-26 Overeem · 10%29-26 Overeem · 2%

42 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Roy Nelson

1.14takedowns / 15 min
1.14 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.42 / 15m
4.22 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
2.58 / 15m
27%
ACCURACY
55%
0.10 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.80 / 15m

Alistair Overeem

1.42takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.77 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Heavyweight

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Roy Nelson↑ +2.4pp
open 37.9%close 40.3%
Alistair Overeem↓ −2.4pp
open 62.1%close 59.7%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Roy Nelson opened at 37.9% and closed at 40.3% (+2.4pp), with Alistair Overeem moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Roy Nelson15014237.9%40.3%+2.4pp
Alistair Overeem-190-15762.1%59.7%−2.4pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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