Gunnar Lúðvík Nelson[1] (born 28 July 1988) is an Icelandic professional mixed martial artist, currently competing in the Welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
[2] He is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which was awarded by Renzo Gracie after impressive results at the 2009 IBJJF Pan-Ams and the 2009 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship.
At the age of 13, he started training in Gōjū-ryū Karate and won the Icelandic Juvenile Kumite Championship title in 2003, and again in 2004 and 2005.
[16] Gunnar began grappling in 2006, receiving his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) blue belt from Matt Thornton of Straight Blast Gym International.
Gunnar first met Kavanagh during one of his BJJ seminars at Mjolnir,[17] and the SBG Ireland owner would remain his head coach until this day.
Gunnar subsequently spent a period at Renzo Gracie Academy in New York to advance rank to black belt.
Shortly after his arrival, he had competed for their team in various competitions, winning a silver medal in the 2009 Mundials brown belt category.
[9] At the 2009 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship, Gunnar took 4th place in the absolute category where he defeated the much heavier and touted BJJ Black Belts Jeff Monson and David Avellan.
Gunnar won five more fights in the 16 months following his debut, in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Denmark, before taking a break from the sport for almost two years.
He secured another first round victory in his next fight against Danny Mitchell at Cage Contender 6 in Manchester, England before returning to BAMMA later that year.
His next appearance was at BAMMA 4: Reid vs. Watson in September 2010 where he faced previously unbeaten British prospect Eugene Fadiora and won by submission in the first round.
[22] In February 2012, Gunnar returned to MMA with a first round armbar submission win over Ukrainian fighter Alexander Butenko at Cage Contender 12 in Dublin Ireland.
Gunnar was expected to make his promotional debut against Pascal Krauss on September 29, 2012, at UFC on Fuel TV: Struve vs.
[25] However, Krauss was forced out of the bout with an injury (Rich Attonito was shortly linked to fighting Gunnar but he had weight concerns and also pulled out) and Gunnar was expected to face DaMarques Johnson at a catchweight bout of 175 lb,[26] but his opponent could not make the required weight.
[29] However, Edwards was forced to pull out of the bout citing an injury, and was replaced by returning veteran Jorge Santiago.
[38] Gunnar next faced Rick Story on October 4, 2014, in the main event at UFC Fight Night 53.
[42] Gunnar won the fight by submission due to a rear naked choke in round one after dropping Thatch with a left-right hand combo.
[52] After rocking Jouban with a punch, Gunnar secured a guillotine choke to win by submission in the second round.
[71][72] However, Silva pulled out in early March due to a knee injury[73] and he was replaced by Takashi Sato.
[79] After a two year hiatus from competing, Nelson is scheduled to face Kevin Holland on March 22, 2025 at UFC Fight Night 255.
Gunnar and his girlfriend Fransiska Björk Hinriksdóttir, who is a clinical psychologist, have two daughters, born on October 31, 2019,[84] and August 13, 2023.