#TFGInterview: Conor McGregor Is not a distraction --In conversation with Gunnar Nelson

Gunnar Nelson is famous for his stoic approach to the MMA game and is among the top welterweights in the UFC’s stacked 170 lbs. division. He is also famously a close training partner of Connor McGregor and has been unwittingly close to the whole UFC-Connor McGregor standoff from a couple of weeks ago.

However, he has a huge task at hand this weekend as UFC makes its maiden voyage into the Netherlands market, with its inaugural Rotterdam card headlined by Alistair Overeem and Andrei Arlovski. Gunnar is set to face young Russian Albert Tumenov, who is on a fast-track to MMA stardom.

Prior to the fight, Nelson took out some time to answer a few queries from The Fan Garage.

TFG: You are facing a very dangerous and fast-rising fighter in Albert Tumenov. He's known for his crisp boxing the most while your standup game is one of the most underrated aspects of your style. Where do you foresee this fight being contested for the most part?

Nelson: Well, this could very well be a classic ‘Grappler vs. striker’ match-up. But you know, sometimes when two guys go up against each other knowing what the other guy is going to do, something totally different happens.

So, maybe I will use some of my other tools and surprise him on the feet. It is really hard to say now, but we will see when we go in there.

TFG: Where do you see yourself placed within the 170 lbs. division in the UFC and has a drop down to lightweight ever crossed your mind?

Nelson: No. I feel I am among the very few welterweights in the welterweight division. And I want to stay here. I don’t believe in all of this weight-cutting and hope that slowly, they will get rid of this and I will be in this weight class along with other actual welterweights.

Hopefully, the other guys move up and maybe a few lightweights move up too. But, I am going to stay in the welterweight class itself and I don’t mind fighting the bigger men.

TFG: The past week or so has been crazy for the sbg, over the whole Connor saga, and given the proximity to your upcoming fight, has it been a distraction at all?

Nelson: I haven’t really trained a lot with Connor since his last fight, but we did a week together in Iceland. Our focus has always been on grappling and I think it will be that way, maybe with a few opponent-specific tactics when training.

As for the whole saga involving Connor, it hasn’t really been any distraction for me or my schedule. In fact, he came in to help train for my fight and it hasn’t made any sort of difference to me.

Watch UFC Fight Night 87: Overeem vs. Arlovski @ 11:30 PM on Sunday, 8th May 2016. Live and Exclusive on SONY ESPN & SONY ESPN HD.