It’s always a little tough to tell just how seriously to take Roy Nelson, but it’s hard to argue with his logic.

Nelson (23-14 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) takes on Matt Mitrione (12-5 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) in a heavyweight grand prix quarterfinal matchup on Feb. 16 at Bellator 194, which takes place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The bout serves as the final contest of the Paramount-broadcast main card following prelims on MMAjunkie.

The winner of the tournament will be awarded Bellator’s vacant heavyweight title, and Nelson admits he’s pretty excited to have that opportunity so early in his run with the promotion.

“The one thing I love about a grand prix and a tournament format is just that it takes the politics out of the game,” Nelson told MMAjunkie. “You can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Handicapping the field for the grand prix is an interesting proposition. After all, while Nelson and Mitrione join true heavyweights Fedor Emelianenko and Frank Mir in the field, light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader faces multi-division fighter Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal in the opening round, and natural middleweight Chael Sonnen already advanced with a win over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

Nelson believes just picking likely winners based on size isn’t a wise idea and believes the results will ultimately come down to stylistic matchups.

“Ryan Bader is a big 205er,” Nelson said. “The only two people that are really, really super small that probably shouldn’t be here but they just like to fight is Chael and ‘Mo.’ ‘Mo’ walks around like 210, but he has back abs. He’s just one of those guys that if he had to cut, he’d be a 185er.”

And here’s where Nelson’s tongue-in-cheek approach to media comes in to play. While he already owns a 2012 win over Mitrione, Nelson said the matchup wasn’t all that appealing. After all, if you can assume the bigger man will generally be the harder puncher, the safe play would seem to be to face the lightest man possible, Nelson argues.

“I wanted the lightest guy first,” Nelson said. “I was like, ‘Give me Chael.’ From doing ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and doing other tournaments, I’m like, ‘Let’s go with who’s the smallest guy first. Let’s kind of go that way.’

“The heavier you are, the harder you hit. That’s how I’ve got to look at it. … I preferred the little guys, but if I’ve got to get a big guy, cool, whatever.”

Fighting on opposite sides of the tournament bracket, Nelson will need to make it to the grand prix final to earn himself that Sonnen contest. First up, though, is Mitrione, and Nelson believes his hand will be raised again, much like it was in their first meeting.

Then it’s two more fights for Nelson to claim the heavyweight title, and he hopes there’s some excitement along the way.

“Winning the belt is kid of first and foremost, but it’s always about entertaining the fans,” Nelson said. “You’ve got to do both. Our job is both.”

To hear more from Nelson, check out the video above.

And for more on Bellator 194, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.