With that said, there will still be some stiff competition. Wes Sims, for example, he's one of those guys with a real heavyweight personality to go with his 260-pound frame. He too sports a long fight resume and is no stranger to the Octagon (though he lost all three of his UFC appearances), but he's probably best known for his controversial fight with Frank Mir at UFC 43, where Sims was disqualified for repeatedly stomping the head of the current interim champion. Mir was granted a rematch in his very next fight and scored a knockout over his then newly-acquired rival. Sims also boasts fights with legends like Tim Silvia, Dan Severn, Kimo Leopoldo and Travis Fulton (who, on a side note, is best known for having almost 250 fights, which is weird). You can bet that Sims will not be intimidated by Nelson or anyone else. Even more so, he won't be shy about expressing it.
There's not much to say about Kimbo Slice right now that the world doesn't already know. He's definitely the one with something to prove and it will be extremely interesting to see how he handles the pressure. Dana White called him out a long time ago, saying Slice would be welcome to tryout TUF but that he had zero chance of actually winning. I wasn't giving him much of a chance myself (and I still think it's a long shot) but he seems to be taking this seriously so far and is displaying more maturity than expected, so we'll see.
Mike Wessel represents the third and final fighter with UFC cred. He had his shot in the Octagon at UFC 92, a loss against Antoni Hardonk, so he'll be looking for a second chance.
John Madsen is one of the few men on this planet who can claim to have beaten Brock Lesnar at anything. Of course, it was a high school wrestling match, so it doesn't really mean anything but it's still kind of interesting and could add some extra spice to any future fights with The Beast.
To hold you over until we can get the rest of our footage from the Expo up on the internet tubes, turn on your flux capacitor and check out this exclusive interview with Demico Rogers from the tryouts in Seattle earlier this year. And just for giggles, we've got some clips of a few who tried and didn't make it. Enjoy.
