Gunnar Nelson’s father and manager talks upcoming bout with Jorge Santiago

Earlier today news broke that Gunnar Nelson‘s original opponent Justin Edwards had withdrawn from the London bout due to injury and would be replaced by Jorge Santiago, who has fought in the UFC previously at middleweight.

This is far from the first time this has happened in Gunnar’s short UFC career.

We caught up with Gunnar’s father and manager Haraldur Nelson to get his thoughts on the change of opponent.

“Very interesting opponent. He’s strong, talented and very experienced with some impressive wins and performances on his record.”

Nelson was originally scheduled to make his UFC debut against Pascal Krauss back in September, however Krauss was forced to withdraw and was replaced by Rich Attonito. However, Attonito also was forced off the card due to weight cut issues.

Finally a new opponent was found in DeMarques Johnson, but Johnson missed the agreed catch weight of 175lbs by 7lbs, weighing in at 183lbs.

The fight went ahead and Gunnar won via rear naked choke following a typically dominant performance from “Gunni” against the bigger and heavier opponent.

“[Santiago] will probably be coming in pretty big since he’s been fighting Middleweight.”

“I see that FightMatrix rank him at number 23 in the Middleweight division (was number 3 in 2009) while Gunnar is ranked number 62 in the Welterweight division.”

“Gunnar is up for a strong challenge. Just the way he likes it.”

“He is looking forward to the fight.”