Gunnar Nelson will headlined UFC Fight Night 53 in Sweden on October 4th against Rick Story.
The Icelandic fighter is one of the most hotly tipped up-and-comers in the welterweight division at this moment in time, undfeated in fourteen fights including four victories in the UFC to date.
Along the way he’s notched up two ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses, including his last fight against Zak Cummings at UFC Fight Night 47 in Ireland, a bout which he won with a second round rear-naked choke.
That’s left him placed at No.12 in the official welterweight rankings and in need of a step up in competition, which Rick Story will certainly provide.
Story is actually positioned three places behind Nelson at No.15 in the rankings, but while his recent record has been patchy, ‘The Horror’ is not an easy fight for anyone in the division and even has a win over current champion Johny Hendricks which came as part of an impressive six fight winning streak between 2009-2011.
Other wins over the likes of Jake Ellenberger, Thiago Alves and Brian Ebersole in his UFC career make it obvious, if it wasn’t already, that Story is by far Nelson’s toughest test to date and will go a long way to proving whether Nelson is ready to step into the 170lb top 10 or not.
Yesterday we noted that a major featherweight fight between Cub Swanson and Frankie Edgar was being rumored to headline this event, but with Nelson Vs Story now installed as the headliner for the UFC Fight Pass show it seems there might be other plans for that bout.
In fact, the latest word is that Edgar himself has called for the potential title eliminator to serve as the main event on the UFC On FOX 13 show in December, and few would argue with that.
