Gunnar Nelson is a professional UFC fighter from Iceland. Before switching to MMA, he was one of the strongest competitors in the European scene. Gunnar became a household name in the grappling circuit after he placed fourth in the ADCC tournament (open weight division) in 2009. Gunnar Nelson has been one of the youngest Europeans to have received a BJJ Black Belt (he was 21 years old) and with only 4 years of training.

Gunnar Nelson makes his debut appearance on Submission Radio to talk about his fight against John Hathaway at UFC 189, the feeling of his first loss against Rick story in Sweden, the reasons for his long layoff, losing and regaining the passion to fight again, training in Las Vegas with Conor McGregor and dinking hot whiskey, how good Conor’s ground game really is, if he thinks Conor could submit Jose Aldo, if he thinks Conor adopted his Karate stance from him, why he decided to quit Karate at age 16 when he was so successful and begin training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, John Hathaway’s style and how they match up, avenging Tom Egan, if he’d go down to lightweight, and more.

McGregor currently holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Kavanagh.

This is what Nelson has to say about Conor’s ground game:

McGregor was promoted to BJJ brown belt by his instructor John Kavanagh.

His instructor John Kavanagh runs the Straight Blast Gym Ireland and was the first Irish person to be awarded a black belt in BJJ. John fought in MMA to get a basic knowledge and experience of it before he moved into coaching, and where his true love lies in teaching. The fighters he coaches are among the top that compete in Irish MMA and are belt holders in the major Irish promotions such as Cage Contenders. He has trained notable fighters, such as Gunnar Nelson, Paul McVeigh, Cathal Pendred, Aisling Daly, Conor McGregor, Chris Fields and Owen Roddy.