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History · 2015 · UFC Fight Night: Barnett vs Nelson · Josh Barnett vs Roy Nelson
From the tape · 26 Sep 2015

Josh Barnett vs Roy Nelson

UFC Fight Night: Barnett vs Nelson · Saitama, Japan
Result

Josh Barnett beat Roy Nelson

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
5 of 5
Clock
5:00
HeavyweightMainReferee · Steve Perceval

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.

JB
Red corner JoshBarnett“The Warmaster”UWF USA · Seattle, Washington
VSOn the tape
RN
Blue corner RoyNelson“Big Country”Country Club · Las Vegas, Nevada
Heavyweight5 rounds26 Sep 2015
The story going in
  • Every one of Barnett’s 5 UFC wins came inside the distance.
  • Has dropped 2 straight in the UFC.
  • Is 14 points more accurate striking than Nelson.
  • Every one of Nelson’s 7 UFC wins came inside the distance.
35-8
Record
22-14
−2 yr37
Age
39
+3″6' 3"
Height
6' 0"
+5″78″
Reach
73″
Orthodox
Stance
Orthodox
7
UFC bouts
+714
5/5100% of wins
Finishes
7/7100% of wins
UWF USA
Gym
Country Club
Seattle, Washington
From
Las Vegas, Nevada
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

5 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Josh Barnett17 sig landed
HEAD41%7 of 16BODY53%9 of 9LEGS6%1 of 1
Roy Nelson7 sig landed
HEAD86%6 of 11BODY14%1 of 2LEGS0%0 landed
17 of 26
Sig.
strikes
7 of 13
0 of 0
Take-
downs
2 of 2
0:38
Control
2:51
Distance 6Clinch 11Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 4Clinch 2Ground 1
Judges · this round · Barnett firstMark Craig9–10Evan Field10–9Charlie Keech10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Josh Barnett44 sig landed
HEAD70%31 of 50BODY27%12 of 14LEGS2%1 of 1
Roy Nelson16 sig landed
HEAD75%12 of 29BODY25%4 of 6LEGS0%0 landed
44 of 65
Sig.
strikes
16 of 35
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 1
2:17
Control
0:00
Distance 17Clinch 27Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 12Clinch 4Ground 0
Judges · this round · Barnett firstMark Craig10–9Evan Field10–9Charlie Keech10–9
Round 35:00 of action
Josh Barnett21 sig landed
HEAD71%15 of 24BODY29%6 of 7LEGS0%0 landed
Roy Nelson15 sig landed
HEAD40%6 of 17BODY20%3 of 4LEGS40%6 of 9
21 of 31
Sig.
strikes
15 of 30
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 4
0:37
Control
2:25
Distance 15Clinch 6Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 5Clinch 10Ground 0
Judges · this round · Barnett firstMark Craig9–10Evan Field10–9Charlie Keech9–10
Round 45:00 of action
Josh Barnett39 sig landed
HEAD69%27 of 38BODY31%12 of 12LEGS0%0 landed
Roy Nelson4 sig landed
HEAD75%3 of 9BODY0%0 landedLEGS25%1 of 1
39 of 50
Sig.
strikes
4 of 10
0 of 0
Take-
downs
1 of 2
2:35
Control
1:22
Distance 5Clinch 34Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 1Clinch 3Ground 0
Judges · this round · Barnett firstMark Craig10–9Evan Field10–9Charlie Keech10–9
Round 55:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Josh Barnett25 sig landed
HEAD48%12 of 19BODY52%13 of 14LEGS0%0 landed
Roy Nelson18 sig landed
HEAD61%11 of 19BODY39%7 of 7LEGS0%0 landed
25 of 33
Sig.
strikes
18 of 26
0 of 0
Take-
downs
1 of 1
2:15
Control
1:13
Distance 8Clinch 17Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 6Clinch 10Ground 2
Judges · this round · Barnett firstMark Craig10–9Evan Field10–9Charlie Keech9–10

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 · Steve Perceval
Josh BarnettRoy Nelson
Official totals — Josh Barnett first
JudgeTotal
Mark Craig48–47
Evan Field2.2 avg spread · 48% wide50–45
Charlie Keech2.0 avg spread · 43% wide48–47

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 — 12 scored, Josh Barnett first · unofficial

John Pollock Fight Network50–45
Craig Amos BleacherReport.com50–45
MM AJunkie.com50–45
Chris Nelson Sherdog.com50–45
Jeff Sherwood Sherdog.com50–45
MM AMania.com50–45
Dallas Winston BloodyElbow.com50–46
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com49–46
Severe MMA.com49–46
Brian Knapp Sherdog.com49–46
Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com48–47
Dave Meltzer Wrestling Observer48–47

Fan vote · unofficial

50-45 Barnett · 54%49-46 Barnett · 20%48-47 Barnett · 11%49-47 Barnett · 6%

54 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.

Josh Barnett

1.26takedowns / 15 min
1.26 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.14 / 15m
2.29 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
4.22 / 15m
55%
ACCURACY
27%
1.40 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.10 / 15m

Roy Nelson

1.14takedowns / 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.

Josh Barnett↑ +9.9pp
open 63.8%close 73.7%
Roy Nelson↓ −9.9pp
open 36.2%close 26.3%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Josh Barnett opened at 63.8% and closed at 73.7% (+9.9pp), with Roy Nelson 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
Josh Barnett-210-32163.8%73.7%+9.9pp
Roy Nelson16026736.2%26.3%−9.9pp
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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