Gunnar Nelson Reveals Ankle Injury Led to UFC Fight Night Belfast Withdrawal

Last week, the original UFC Fight Night 99 (online betting) headliner was scrapped when Gunnar Nelson had to withdraw due to an undisclosed ailment.

On Tuesday, the Iceland native revealed via Instagram that an “ankle twist” ultimately forced him to withdraw from his main event clash against Dong Hyun Kim. According to Nelson, the injury occurred during an open workout at approximately the 1:08 mark of the video below:



“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…..He knew all about it because he said he felt the massive click when it happened,” Nelson wrote. “I was forced to stop within minutes because I [realized] it was bad.”

Nelson initially hoped he might still be able to compete but decided against it when he was unable to resume MMA training after a few weeks. As a result of the injury, a rematch between Gegard Mousasi and Uriah Hall was booked as the event’s new headliner.

UFC Fight Night takes place on Nov. 19 in Belfast at the SSE Arena and streams in its entirety on UFC Fight Pass. Nelson last competed at UFC Fight Night “Overeem vs. Arlovski,” where he submitted Albert Tumenov with a neck crank 3:15 into the second round.

I want begin with saying im very sorry to all my fans, sponsors, friends and StunGun that im pulling out of this fight in Belfast. I was so much looking forward to fighting again in Ireland and now its not happening because of a stupid ankle twist that ironacly happend in a UFC open work out!! It happend at 1:08min into the video that was live on facebook for those who want to see it, its still up i think. Right away i wasnt 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 happend. I was forced to stop within minutes because i relised 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 normaly 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 happend. I kept doing everything i could wich 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 relise that this was gonna take more time and i could not go into this fight with one ankle and not realy 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. Photo: @michaelquiet

A photo posted by Gunnar Nelson (@gunninelson) on Oct 25, 2016 at 7:30am PDT