LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 21: Gunnar Nelson of Iceland poses on the scale during the UFC Fight Night … More
Gunnar Nelson was set to fight twice in the same year for the first time since 2019 when he was matched up against Neil Magny for a UFC 318 scrap. That welterweight fight, which was to take place on the preliminary card of the Holloway vs. Poirier 3 headlined event, is off after Nelson suffered a hamstring injury that will leave him unable to compete on July 19 from the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.
Nelson (19-6-1) fought for the first time in over two years in March when he faced Kevin Holland at the 02 Arena in London on a UFC Fight Night card. Holland won that fight, beating Nelson via unanimous decision. The loss ended Nelson’s two-fight winning streak.
Octagon Update was the first to report the news of Nelson’s withdrawal from the figh card.
Magny (29-13) is riding the first two-fight losing skid of his career since he dropped back-to-back fights to Sergio Moraes and Seth Baczynski in 2013. Magny, who has been with the UFC since that same year, has been knocked out in the first round his past two trips to the Octagon, falling to Michael Morales in August 2024 and Carlos Prates in November 2024. Before those losses, Magny was on a 4-3 run, alternating wins and losses in those seven contests.
“Maybe some of you have heard. I’ve had to withdraw from my fight with Neil Magny on July 19 due to a hamstring injury,” Nelson said on social media. “I won’t get into any crazy details about the injury but I’ll tell you it’s a two-part injury, so there is a tear in one of the muscles in the hamstring, which is a Grade 2b injury. It’s not too bad, so it’s possibly something that we could have worked with.
“However, the second injury is on the tendon inside the muscle, which is a full thickness tear, so a Grade 4c injury and that’s a more serious one. Basically, I’m absolutely useless when it comes to any type of grappling scenarios. I’m not able to wrestle or grapple or kick and apparently it will be another eight weeks at least until I can comfortably have any type of grappling training at full speed. At least eight weeks.”
The UFC has not indicated if Magny will remain on UFC 318: Holloway vs. Poirier 3 with a replacement opponent.
We will have more on the UFC 318: Holloway vs. Poirier 3 fight card as fight night nears.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/trentreinsmith/2025/07/06/ufc-318-holloway-vs-poirier-3-loses-veteran-matchup-to-injury/