Konan
02-08-2013, 07:55 PM
It's always been a little bit hard to read Gunnar Nelson.
The laconic Icelander was 19 years old when Renzo Gracie held a seminar in his hometown. It wasn't Nelson's bubbling personality that struck the MMA legend, but his potential on the mat.
"He had a very unique style on the ground which made him hard to sweep and predict," Gracie told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "Everyone was having a horrible time predicting what Gunnar was going to do when we rolled."
Gracie immediately invited the youngster to train with him at his academy in New York.
"He was very talented, with a lot of potential," Gracie said. "But in reality, he needed to come to the U.S. to get the best out of that potential, to train harder and to learn how to be an athlete and a professional fighter."
Thankfully, Nelson didn't need much convincing. For him, it was the beginning of a four-year journey that saw him drop a biology major in college to pursue his dream of becoming a mixed martial artist.
Nelson soon found himself in the Big Apple apartment of Gracie's cousin, trying to decipher conversations in Portugese. Sometimes, he was lonely. But more often than not, he embraced solitude.
"I always like being alone," he said. "It's peaceful. I appreciate it."
Nelson is now 24, and he's on his way to mastering the language of fighting. He already left a mark on the grappling world when he submitted heavyweight Jeff Monson at the Abu Dhabi submission wrestling championships in 2009 and placed in the top five that year and in 2011.
Opponents are still trying to figure out what he's going to do in the cage. Mixing traditional martial arts striking with an aggressive ground game, he catches them off balance before putting on a submission.
"You waste too much energy in thinking," he said. "You're a lot slower, so you don't move the right way. Sometimes, you have some space to think a strategy over, but to be honest, I find that it kind of goes out the window when you react and do what's natural."
In his octagon debut, fans got a good look at Nelson's skills when he submitted DaMarques Johnson in less than five minutes of a catchweight bout at UFC on FUEL TV 5. They also got a sense of his personality, which is to say they didn't get much.
Monosyllabic both inside and outside the cage, Nelson's frame of mind isn't much different leading into his fight with Jorge Santiago (25-10 MMA, 1-4 UFC) at UFC on FUEL TV 7, which takes place Feb. 16 at London's Wembley Arena. It's the second time he's endured multiple opponent changes – this fight saw one opponent drop out after two did in his debut – and he's similarly unaffected.
"Not much difference," Nelson (10-0-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) said. "Still working on everything I worked on every day. Not much has changed."
There are great hopes for Nelson as he heads into the fight with former Sengoku champ Santiago, who begins a second stint inside the octagon after a disastrous run in 2011. Gracie saw a potential champion when he met his future pupil in 2008, but after four years with the fighter, he's convinced a championship belt is on the horizon.
"He absolutely will win the UFC title," Gracie said. "I have no doubt he can beat the very best in the division. How fast he wants to win it is up to him, but I think he can beat everyone in the division within the next two years. He has nothing to worry about on the ground or striking. People are going to know a lot about him very soon."
But already, Nelson has attracted cult appeal for his quiet demeanor and lethal ground work. Following his debut against Johnson, message boards lit up singing his praises.
Nelson isn't as boisterous as his Portugese teacher about his prospects in the very crowded welterweight class. But he's working toward the same goal: a belt.
"That would be an awesome thing," he said. "I'm aiming for that. Right now, I haven't fought a single fight in the welterweight division. We'll see how this one goes."
Nelson can't predict how next week's fight will end, because he has no idea how the fight will go. Fans will just have to guess.
Asked how he'd like to do to end the fight, he has one word: "Win."
The laconic Icelander was 19 years old when Renzo Gracie held a seminar in his hometown. It wasn't Nelson's bubbling personality that struck the MMA legend, but his potential on the mat.
"He had a very unique style on the ground which made him hard to sweep and predict," Gracie told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "Everyone was having a horrible time predicting what Gunnar was going to do when we rolled."
Gracie immediately invited the youngster to train with him at his academy in New York.
"He was very talented, with a lot of potential," Gracie said. "But in reality, he needed to come to the U.S. to get the best out of that potential, to train harder and to learn how to be an athlete and a professional fighter."
Thankfully, Nelson didn't need much convincing. For him, it was the beginning of a four-year journey that saw him drop a biology major in college to pursue his dream of becoming a mixed martial artist.
Nelson soon found himself in the Big Apple apartment of Gracie's cousin, trying to decipher conversations in Portugese. Sometimes, he was lonely. But more often than not, he embraced solitude.
"I always like being alone," he said. "It's peaceful. I appreciate it."
Nelson is now 24, and he's on his way to mastering the language of fighting. He already left a mark on the grappling world when he submitted heavyweight Jeff Monson at the Abu Dhabi submission wrestling championships in 2009 and placed in the top five that year and in 2011.
Opponents are still trying to figure out what he's going to do in the cage. Mixing traditional martial arts striking with an aggressive ground game, he catches them off balance before putting on a submission.
"You waste too much energy in thinking," he said. "You're a lot slower, so you don't move the right way. Sometimes, you have some space to think a strategy over, but to be honest, I find that it kind of goes out the window when you react and do what's natural."
In his octagon debut, fans got a good look at Nelson's skills when he submitted DaMarques Johnson in less than five minutes of a catchweight bout at UFC on FUEL TV 5. They also got a sense of his personality, which is to say they didn't get much.
Monosyllabic both inside and outside the cage, Nelson's frame of mind isn't much different leading into his fight with Jorge Santiago (25-10 MMA, 1-4 UFC) at UFC on FUEL TV 7, which takes place Feb. 16 at London's Wembley Arena. It's the second time he's endured multiple opponent changes – this fight saw one opponent drop out after two did in his debut – and he's similarly unaffected.
"Not much difference," Nelson (10-0-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) said. "Still working on everything I worked on every day. Not much has changed."
There are great hopes for Nelson as he heads into the fight with former Sengoku champ Santiago, who begins a second stint inside the octagon after a disastrous run in 2011. Gracie saw a potential champion when he met his future pupil in 2008, but after four years with the fighter, he's convinced a championship belt is on the horizon.
"He absolutely will win the UFC title," Gracie said. "I have no doubt he can beat the very best in the division. How fast he wants to win it is up to him, but I think he can beat everyone in the division within the next two years. He has nothing to worry about on the ground or striking. People are going to know a lot about him very soon."
But already, Nelson has attracted cult appeal for his quiet demeanor and lethal ground work. Following his debut against Johnson, message boards lit up singing his praises.
Nelson isn't as boisterous as his Portugese teacher about his prospects in the very crowded welterweight class. But he's working toward the same goal: a belt.
"That would be an awesome thing," he said. "I'm aiming for that. Right now, I haven't fought a single fight in the welterweight division. We'll see how this one goes."
Nelson can't predict how next week's fight will end, because he has no idea how the fight will go. Fans will just have to guess.
Asked how he'd like to do to end the fight, he has one word: "Win."