Gunnar Nelson (16-3-1) has signed on the dotted line to face Darren Till (16-0-1) at UFC London on March 17. Gunni’s coach John Kavanagh came out on Twitter saying “we’ve agreed so hoping to hear confirmation soon.”
Nelson publicly made it known that he wants to slow down the “Gorrilla” hype train by Tweeting “I’m game big boy” when the UFC announced it was coming to London and Till claimed opposition was “scared” to step up to face the up-and-coming welterweight.
So @ufc have offered @GunniNelson v @darrentill2 main event #UFCLondon we’ve agreed so hoping to hear confirmation soon ?how do you guys like the match up? I’m reminded of the Thatch fight, big strong striker but I think Till is tougher challenge. One way to find out… pic.twitter.com/b7U81FpzBf
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) January 24, 2018
“Till and Gunni said they wanted to fight but nothing is happening” says Gunnar’s father and manager Haraldur Nelson to MMA Viking a few days ago, but things have changed and now the fight has been offered to both fighters from the UFC. Nelson has signed the agreement. The proposed bout would be the main event for the card going down at The 02.
Till’s dominant victory over Donald Cerrone in the UFC Gdansk headliner late last year has huge welterweight looking elsewhere for a bout, but his opportunity to fight Nelson is on the table now.
Nelson is coming off a controversial loss to eye-poker Santiago Ponzinibbio at UFC Fight Night 113 back in July which stopped a two fight winning streak. While the fight was full of fouls up to the finish from the Argentinian fighter, there was some who thought that a no contest could be the result after an appeal by the Nelson camp.
The Mjolnir fighter is ranked as the #13 contender while Till is at #7, and the showdown would be a meeting of Europe’s top two ranked welterweights. With both fighters still in their 20’s it would push one of the fighters closer to a title run.
