UFC Vegas 68’s Kyle Nelson: Bittersweet Fight Moved to Vegas

Kyle Nelson, UFC
Kyle Nelson, UFC London Ceremonial Weigh-In, July 22, 2022 Credit: Gabriel Gonzalez/Cageside Press

When Kyle Nelson got the call to fight Doo Ho Choi, it came with an added bonus. Not only would he be getting the first crack against the heavily hyped “Korean Superboy”, but he would do so in Choi’s home country in front of a live audience. However, before all of his travel arrangements were made, the UFC pivoted. Due to unannounced reasons, the card would be moved to the UFC’s familiar home inside the Apex in Vegas.

The change caused mixed emotions to the Candian.

“As far the fight goes and [my] performance, this works better in my favor. There will definitely be a lot less travelling,” Nelson said. “As far as the fight, this worked out best for me, but I was definitely excited to go to South Korea.”

Nelson had already been outlining plans to take a few days with fiance to see the world. While he’s bummed that Vegas isn’t quite the same thing for them, the in cage opportunity hasn’t changed.

“[I wanted to] fight in front of a full arena and put on a show there and take a couple days off with my fiance and do some touristy kind of stuff,” he said. “Sucks that we can’t do that, but I definitely think I’m still going to put on a good fight in Vegas.”

In addition to not having to deal with all the travel, Nelson also won’t have to be in hostile territory as he’s been so many times. Although he doesn’t feel like it affects his ability to perform, sometimes he does feel like it migth affect his ability to win.

“I’ve always been the away guy even when I was fighting in Canada. I’m from a very small town in Canada, so I’d be going to big cities like Toronto and I’d be fighting people from Toronto,” Nelson shared. “for the most part, it hasn’t really affected me at all. I still fight the same. Does it affect the judges in England? Maybe a little bit – it’s hard to say.”

Nelson will figth Choi as part of the UFC Vegas 68 card this weekend. The main card starts at 1am EST on Sunday morning on ESPN+.

You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 33:03.