Gunnar Nelson will most likely not fight again this year. Gunnar wants to take his time before returning to competition after a knockout loss to Santiago Ponzinibbio in July.

Gunnar Nelson fought Santiago Ponzinibbio in the main event in Glasgow earlier this summer. After the loss photos and videos emerged of Gunnar getting repeatedly poked in the eyes. The result drew controversy and the loss has been appealed to the UFC by Gunnar’s team since the fight was commissioned by the UFC. No athletic commission in place in Scotland.

Gunnar has spent much of his time with his family in the past few weeks after the fight and hasn’t done a whole lot of training. The loss certainly stings, especially since this was his best camp in his career, but he isn’t dwelling on it too much today. “It really stinks but there’s nothing else to do but keep on going,” says Gunnar.

The team is still waiting on UFC’s decision regarding the appeal. “The appeal is sitting there with the UFC and no results yet. That just means they are actually considering this. This is a huge deal if you think about it. They’ll send a strong message with their decision. I’m excited to see what happens.”

Despite a tough loss, Gunnar is pretty much over it and willing to move forward. He acknowledges the possible damage due to the knockout and is therefore in no rush of returning to competition.

“I don’t feel bad when I think about the fight, I’m pretty much over the loss. Of course it sucks at first and it hurts. But I’m ready to get back to training although I probably won’t compete again this year so I can rest my head properly. I think that’s a smart move for the future.”

Gunnar felt the effect of the eye pokes the next couple of days after the fight but no permanent damage was done. “I had a blurry vision for a couple of days. I was sore in the eye but I felt it wasn’t anything too serious or any permanent damage done to the vision, which was good fortune really. Those were pretty brutal eye pokes.”