Gunnar Nelson is ready for the task of headlining the first UFC Belfast card in over nine years.
Gunni’s opponent for the highly-anticipated card will be South Korea’s Dong Hyun Kim. “Stun Gun” has a wealth of UFC experience under his belt and has faced two welterweight belt-holders during his tenure, former interim champion Carlos Condit and current king Tyron Woodley.
Woodley is matched up against number-one contender Stephen Thompson at UFC 205, but that fight was booked after “The Chosen One” actively tried to deny “Wonderboy” his shot in favour of big-money fights against Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz.
The champion received a lot of backlash for chasing paper, but Nelson doesn’t blame him for trying.
“You’re not allowed to do a lot of things, but you’ve got to try what you’ve got to do. I agree with (what he did). You should just go your own way. He’s trying to pick his fights and that’s good. He should definitely do what he wants to do.”
Gunnar Nelson set to headline UFC Belfast https://t.co/jngKJRLkDa pic.twitter.com/Nr1L0FB5ZX
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 25, 2016
One huge superstar who looks set to return to the UFC is former welterweight champion and arguably the greatest fighter to ever grace an Octagon, GSP. Gunni admitted that he would be more than happy to welcome “Rush” back to the sport, although he believes the Canadian has plans to drop down to 155 lb instead.
“Yeah, of course. Who wouldn’t want to fight Georges St-Pierre? He’s a legend of the sport.”
“I think he’d definitely be bouncing back with big-money fights. Maybe he would like to get the title again. I heard somewhere that he was a little bit lighter than he has been, so maybe he’s going into the lightweight division. He was a pretty heavy welterweight at the time, so I was a bit surprised when I heard that. I definitely think he’d be looking for money fights.”
Nelson is focused on the task immediately ahead of him though – trying to follow up his impressive submission victory over hot prospect Albert Tumenov with a win over Kim.
“He’s a great fighter. I’ve watched him from the beginning since he arrived in the UFC and he’s a really well-rounded fighter. He’s changed a little bit recently. In his last few fights he’s become a bit of a flashy striker looking for knockouts. I think that’s maybe because he’s looking for the fans and looking for exciting fights, but I’ve always admired him as a martial artist.”
Tickets to UFC FIGHT NIGHT®: KIM vs. NELSON will be available to the general public on Friday, September 23 from 10:00 a.m. BST via the SSE Arena box office and Ticketmaster.
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