ICELAND’S UFC hero Gunnar Nelson has a brilliant notion on why his tiny country can stun sporting giants in MMA, football and strongman.
The welterweight is one of just 300,000 Icelanders who have produced amazing results and performances in a range of sports.
The football team humiliated England at Euro 2016 – with incredible support and that amazing clap – and Nelson is one of an impressive group of fighters from the tiny island.
And the dead-pan grappling ace, who fights Versace model Alan Jouban on Saturday in London, reckons it might be down to the fact there is “f*** all” else to do apart from train like Trojans.
The softly-spoken powerhouse said: “It seems we have always had strong and physical people, I don’t know when it became a thing back in the day.
“It might be to do with genes or having f*** all to do during the day apart from lift weights and run up mountains!
“We seem to be able to keep up with a lot of sports despite having just 300,000 people.
“With the strongman contests we have had maybe three, four or five world champions.
“And now we have tons of fighters and we are only the first wave with more to come.”
Nelson splits his training came between Iceland and Ireland where he works at the Straight Blast Gym alongside close friend Conor McGregor.
The world No.9 welterweight is from the small fishing city of Akureyri which agreed a friendship and fisheries agreement deal with unglamorous Grimsby in 2007.
But Nelson has seen enough from his heroic compatriots and other small-town stars to know that size doesn’t matter when it comes to sporting competition.
He said: “Individual sports I have always found fascinating because you see people arrive for the Olympics from these tiny villages in India or somewhere where they have no facilities or training partners and they take gold.
“It just tells you that you don’t have to be at the very best gym or surrounded by the most high-profile people to be the best.
“You have to develop yourself and that shows when a country of 300,000 people has world champions.
“It’s about developing yourself and travelling and learning and we have the internet now so we can learn even more.”
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