LONDON, England — The Ultimate Fighting Championship kicked off its European tour in style Saturday with UFC Fight Night at the O2 Arena headlined by a clash between light-heavyweight contenders Alexander Gustafsson and London’s own Jimi “The Poster Boy” Manuwa. While the main event went the way of the favourite Gustafsson it was the performance of another Nordic native that impressed me the most.

Since his teenage years Gunnar Nelson has been drawing attention from fight aficionados all over the world but I believe last night was his true coming out party. At 25, Nelson isn’t quite at his peak, but he put in the performance of a lifetime against Omari Akhmedov much to the delight of the 300-plus fans who privately chartered flights from his home nation of Iceland just to see him fight live.

Nelson’s UFC career began with a display of dominance against DaMarques Johnson in Nottingham. On that night, he quickly took the fight to the ground — his stint in competitive submission grappling has given him an advantage over almost any UFC welterweight on the ground — and on that night he didn’t need long to secure the rear-naked choke. But fight fans, while impressed, were left with a few unanswered questions like: “How good is Gunni’s stand up?” or, “Can he take a punch?”

Nelson’s next outing partially answered those questions as he picked up a decision win against veteran Jorge Santiago. Nelson showcased his karate stylings in the fight where he was largely successful, but failed to get the finish and it planted a seed of doubt in many minds about how good he truly is. A seed of doubt that would last Saturday night.

Akhmedov, although relatively unknown, entered the Octagon on an 11-fight win. His background in sambo is notorious and he contains power in both hands. Many had backed him to pull off the upset, but boy were they wrong.

From the moment the cage door closed, Nelson looked superb. His standup looked amazing. His new coach out at Mjolnir had obviously worked extensively with Nelson on his boxing game and he showcased this by dropping Akhmedov with a left cross before he finished the fight on the ground.

After last night, I, along with many others realized just how good Nelson is. I believe the UFC will be likely to give him a big fight in Dublin in July, probably against someone like Mike Pyle, who would provide Nelson a stiff enough test to see just how high his ceiling for success is.

If Nelson does fight at the Dublin show, he could potentially be ready for the UFC’s return to Sweden in October. By the time the UFC returns to London next February, Nelson has the potential to have solidified himself within the upper echelon of the welterweight division.

In Gunnar Nelson the UFC not only has a new 170-pound threat, but a fighter who could rival the likes of Gustafsson and teammate Conor McGregor’s in terms of popularity throughout Europe.