Quote:
Originally Posted by PedroCassidinho
Was that outright or in the brown belt division?
That's some pretty impressive feats, especially for someone from your part of the world.
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Sorry, I should have clarified. He won those in the brown belt division.
He did however take gold in the Expert no-gi middleweight division of the North American Grappling Championships, beating Jorge Patino on points in the final match, and took silver in the Gi Expert class, losing on points to Dan Simmler. Gunnar has been giving as good as he gets against black belts for some time now, and despite only having had the brown for about a year, many people think he should be promoted. If he doesn't bomb out of ADCC, which I don't think is going to happen, I expect he will.
His no-gi game is actually better than his gi game(or at least it used to be, the kid is a learning machine but has only really been focussing on the gi for the last year or so), so I expect him to be able to hang, or at least not get steamrolled at ADCC. He is fighting one weight class above his optimal though, because -77 was full, so I´m not expecting him to medal(though I hope so!) against such tough competition.
I know that my opinion is sort of biased since he's my countryman and all, but I honestly believe that Gunnar Nelson will be a name a whole lot of people will be talking about in a year or two from now - both in grappling and MMA. The work ethic and dedication of this kid is unbelievable. He's a grappling natural for sure(nobody gets a brown in three years or so without being a natural), but unlike many naturals, he takes nothing for granted, never slacks, always works harder than anyone else in the room, and then comes back for second helpings.