Gunnar Lúðvík Nelson (born 28 July 1988) is an Icelandic professional mixed martial artist, currently competing in the Welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Gunnar was born on 28 July 1988, in Akureyri in the north side of Iceland but has lived in Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, almost all his life from early childhood.
He played football and ice hockey in his childhood years.
1992
Gunnar has one sibling, a sister named María Dögg Nelson, born in 1992 in Reykjavík.
María is an actress in their home country of Iceland.
2003
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.
He took home medals in every karate tournament he participated in from 2003 to 2005.
2005
In 2005, he was chosen as Iceland's most promising up-and-coming karate talent of that year, when he was just 16.
However, he gave up karate to train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and grappling at age 17.
Gunnar's father, Haraldur Dean Nelson (aka Halli Nelson), is of Anglo-American and Icelandic descent.
He is also Gunnar's manager.
Gunnar's mother, Guðrún Hulda Gunnarsdóttir Nelson, is Icelandic.
2006
Gunnar began grappling in 2006, receiving his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) blue belt from Matt Thornton of Straight Blast Gym International.
From the age of 17, he continued his tutelage primarily under John Kavanagh, one of Thornton's students.
Gunnar first met Kavanagh during one of his BJJ seminars at Mjolnir, and the SBG Ireland owner would remain his head coach until this day.
2007
In May 2007, Gunnar fought in mixed martial arts for the first time, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The fight was against Danish fighter John Olesen.
The judges ruled the bout a draw.
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.
2008
By 2008, Gunnar had already progressed far enough for Kavanagh to award him his brown belt, but with Kavanagh not being a black belt for more than six years at the time, he was unable to award Gunnar his own black belt under IBJJF rules.
Gunnar subsequently spent a period at Renzo Gracie Academy in New York to advance rank to black belt.
2009
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.
Nelson is a member of Mjölnir MMA in Iceland, and SBG Ireland.
Shortly after his arrival, he had competed for their team in various competitions, winning a silver medal in the 2009 Mundials brown belt category.
He also won gold at the 2009 Pan American Championship (Gi), along with gold and silver (open class) in the 2009 Pan American Championship (No-Gi).
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.
Gracie had already seen enough, and awarded him his black belt after less than a year with his academy.
2010
He returned at BAMMA 2: Roundhouses at the Roundhouse in February 2010 and defeated opponent Sam Elsdon via submission in the first round.
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.
2011
In 2011, Gunnar was again offered a place in the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship and had a good run (though not bringing home any medals), defeating the then present and twofold European Champion and multiple Finnish champion Marko Helen and the Brazilian and American champion and former World Champion Bruno Frazzato.
Today, Gunnar is an instructor in his home club Mjolnir.
He spends his time between there, SBG Ireland, Renzo Gracie Academy, and also SBG Mainline in Manchester.
2012
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.
In late 2012 Gunnar signed a multi-fight agreement with the UFC.
Gunnar signed a multifight contract with the UFC in July 2012.
He's the first fighter from Iceland to fight for the company.
Gunnar was expected to make his promotional debut against Pascal Krauss on September 29, 2012, at UFC on Fuel TV: Struve vs. Miocic.
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,
but his opponent could not make the required weight.
