Gunnar Nelson has spoken for the first time about the injury which forced him out of the UFC Belfast main event on November 19th.
In a cruel twist of fate, the injury occurred in a UFC open workout in SBG Concorde on September 21st while he was rolling with training partner Kenny Baker.
“I want begin with saying I’m very sorry to all my fans, sponsors, friends and StunGun that I’m pulling out of this fight in Belfast”, Gunni wrote on Instagram.
“I was so much looking forward to fighting again in Ireland and now its not happening because of a stupid ankle twist that ironically happened in a UFC open workout!! It happened at 1:08min into the video that was live on Facebook for those who want to see it, it’s still up I think.”
The ankle twist can be seen above.
“Right away i wasn’t sure how serious it was so I kept face and rolled a little on but told my training partner Kenny Baker about it during and he knew all about it he said because he felt the massive click when it happened. I was forced to stop within minutes because I realised it was bad.
“For a few days i was not able to put any weight on the leg and thought I had to pull out and felt devastated but then within 10 days i got to a state where I could walk normally without much pain so i thought again that I was gonna fight and felt great. For a few weeks I was doing everything that I could to get better so I would be able to return to proper training again but that next step of being able to bounce, move in and out and grapple just would not happened. I kept doing everything i could which was mostly rowing, swimming and bits here and there thinking I would get there.
“A week ago my trainers told me and i was starting to realise that this was gonna take more time and i could not go into this fight with one ankle and not really any martial art training at all 🙁 Again i am so sorry for this but to all who already booked their tickets and travels and all the fans that were looking forward to this fight like I was.
“I will be back soon better then ever. Thank you all for all the support and I’m sorry for any inconvenience.”
Nelson’s original opponent Dong Hyun Kim has been removed from the card entirely and a new main event of Gegard Mousasi vs. Uriah Hall has been placed in its stead.
