London, England — At UFC 286 this past weekend, Gunnar Nelson made his sixth UFC appearance in London, with only Makwan Amirkhani having more fights in the capital.
The unique veteran racked up another win, this time over the extremely tough Bryan Barberena. Coming into the fight, both Nelson and Barberena knew that the Icelandic fighter held the clear advantage on the floor. And unfortunately for Barberena, he found that out the hard way.
Despite being taken down to the ground, the Gym-O fighter tried everything he could to distract Gunnar, and get back to his feet. “He’s a tough guy I could tell, I was having it my way and I was on top of him on the ground and he was kind of poking me a little bit and I looked at him and smiled and he just started laughing with the funniest laugh,” Nelson recalled, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press back stage at the O2 Arena.
“This is the first time I’ve actually started laughing in the middle of a fight. Like I genuinely laughed,” Gunnar said.
Gunnar Nelson has been a permanent fixture of SBG Ireland for a long period of his career and was part of the UFC Dublin card back in 2014. With that he admitted that night was ‘one of the most amazing nights I’ve ever had.’
“I mean UFC Dublin was one of the most amazing nights I’ve ever had, it was phenomenal. It would be awesome to get back in there [Dublin],” he said.
With Conor McGregor’s return impending (following coaching duties on TUF 31), depending on how long he sticks around, we could see the UFC return to the Irish capital with a huge event, and Gunnar Nelson would be reserved a spot.
Watch the full UFC 286 post-fight press conference with welterweight Gunnar Nelson above.
