Gunnar takes 4th place in absolute at ADCC 2009
Gunnar had a great run at the ADCC 2009 in Barcelona last weekend, beating the much heavier Jeff Monson and Dave Avellan to take 4th place in the absolute division! On Saturday Gunnar lost on a judge decision against James Brasco in the -88kg division after double overtime. But a great comeback in the absolute division on Sunday got him the fourth place, without a doubt making him the upset of the tournament. Coming in the lightest in the absolute (Gunnar weighted in 83kg in his clothes and shoes!) and being drawn against the heaviest man there, the veteran and monster of a man Jeff Monson, everybody expected the former ADCC champion (who had taken third place in +99kg earlier) to crush the young Icelander. However, Gunnar had other plans. The bout went to double overtime and but we’ll let the live ADCC webcast do the talking:
Gunnar Nelson pulls guard on Monson... Monson has a lot of trouble passing Nelson’s guard... Nelson and Monson into overtime. Nelson shoots. Monson sprawls, Monson shoots and gets reversed! Nelson almost getting the back of Monson... Monson looks tired... A much smaller Nelson keeps pushing Monson from the mats. Crowd is cheering. Nelson and Monson goes into second overtime. Nelson shoots, Monson looks tired but manages to sprawl and reverse. Nelson almost gets his back again... Monson has headlock on Nelson. Nelson escapes. Both back on their feet. Nelson shoots and Monson sprawls and spins to his back. Nelson escapes. Monson shoots, but can’t get the takedown. Nelson shoots in and gets the back. Both hooks in. Attacks the arm. Times up, Nelson wins by points and the whole arena is standing up cheering!
Gunnar Nelson beats Jeff Monson. More pictures.
Photo taken by James Oluoch-Olunya.
In the quarter finals Gunnar met another veteran, Dave Avellan. Again the live ADCC webcast:
Nelson and Avellan starts... Nelson takes Avellan down, but no points scoring yet. Gunnar gets another takedown on Avellan. Nelson gets headlock, switches to singleleg. Avellan shoots, takes Nelson down, but Nelson spins out and takes Avellan down. Attacking his back, one hook in... Avellan escapes. No points. Avellan shoots in, Nelson defends. Avellan shoots for single leg, Nelson defends. Nelson shoots in, Avellan attacks the arm. Nelson gets the back, one hook in, Avellan taps to a rear naked choke!
Great run by Gunnar and this won him the fourth place in the absolute. In the semifinals Gunnar had a great fight against one of the world greatest grapplers and many times World Champion, Alexandre “Xande” Ribeiro, who earlier won the -99 division. However near the end of the match Xande caught him in a beautiful kneebar winning the match. Gunnar then lost against Vinicius “Vinny” Magalhães (-99 division) on points scored by takedown in the last 5 seconds of overtime in a bout for the 3rd place.
