Gunnar Nelson took his time on the feet against Zak Cummings tonight in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 46, but when he finally saw an opportunity to switch up the gears in the second round he pounced on it, taking his opponent to the mat, seizing his back and locking in the fight-ending choke almost effortlessly.
Round One:
Nelson in his usual Karate style stance keeps out of range of Cummings early strikes. Then he presses into the clinch, but Cummings matches him and they jockey for position. As they break apart Nelson lands a good knee.
Nelson lands a right hook. he misses with an overhand. Nelson very relaxed, but he’s very alert and continually makes Cumming miss by backing up just enough. A right hand counter lands for Nelson, but then Cummings moves to his back and clinches up. Nelson turns though and then breaks away from the clinch.
A head kick is blocked by Cummings. Pace slowed a little now in the final 90 seconds. Cummings leaps in and nelson counters with a punch to the body. More missed shots from Cummings and then he moves into the clinch. Nothing doing and they back up. However, Cummings then comes back in and does finally land a few nice punches while Nelson has his back against the cage. Not for long though as Nelson circles out and that’s the final action of the round.
Round Two:
Nelson biding his time in the opening minute of the second as Cummings continually tries to land strikes, but generally comes up short. however, Cummings does back him up against the cage and unleash a flurry that foces Nelson to clinch.
They stay in the clinch for a while trying to gain an advantage, but it’s stalemate and they disengage. Not much volume in Nelson’s striking so far this round, but he does land a speedy right hand that clearly hits the mark. Certainly better accuracy from him, but a little more offense wouldn’t go astray.
Again he finds a home for a clinical right hand. He starts to close the distance more now, but remains patient and just snaps off another quick right.
Into clinch range and Nelson reaches for a guillotine choke and goes to the mat with it. He fluidly switches on to Cummings back. He lands a few punches and then swiftly locks in a rear-naked choke.
Impressive stuff from Nelson in the way he was able to transition so slickly to his dangerous ground game and he forces Cummings to tap with only twelve seconds of the second round remaining.
