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MMA

25th Jan 2018

Gunnar Nelson agrees to fight Darren Till in UFC London’s main event

The ball is in Till's court

Ben Kiely

Gunnar Nelson

UFC London is crying out for an exciting headliner and Gunnar Nelson is more than willing to provide one.

UFC Fight Night 127 could really do with Gunnar Nelson in the main event. One glance at the bouts confirmed for the London card will leave you saying, ‘Jee-zus!’ It only strengthens the theory that the UFC throw any old muck together and call it a European Fight Night.

At the time of writing, only two fighters on the card are ranked – Jimi Manuwa and Jan Blachowicz. Both of whom compete at light heavyweight, arguably the weakest division in the UFC. It is also a rematch that literally nobody was calling for.

So how about Nelson vs another highly-touted prospect being added to the card? To sweeten the deal, let’s make the opponent from the UK.

According to SBG Ireland head coach John Kavanagh, a 170 lb dual between his charge Nelson (16-3-1 MMA, 7-3 UFC) and Darren Till (16-0-1 MMA, 4-0-1 UFC) is a possibility for the headline slot. Kavanagh claimed that their side has accepted UFC offer and they’re waiting to hear back from the Liverpudlian.

Till has been on the sidelines since his breakthrough knockout of Donald Cerrone in Gdansk. Meanwhile, Gunni is looking to bounce back from a brutal knockout to Santiago Ponzinibbio last July. The Icelander received multiple illegal eye-pokes in the lead up to the stoppage. Their subsequent appeal over the result was rejected by the commission.

Interestingly, this comes less than 24 hours after former middleweight king Michael Bisping announced on his podcast that he had been offered a fight at London. He was coy about releasing any details over the offer and admitted he was weighing up the merits of accepting the bout.

“Maybe we’ll have an announcement tomorrow, maybe we won’t,” the Count told his listeners.