Gunnar Nelson vs. Rick Story set for UFC Fight Night 53 main event in Stockholm

The UFC’s return to Sweden in October now has its main event.

Gunnar Nelson (13-0-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) will try to keep his unbeaten record intact when he meets fellow welterweight Rick Story (17-8 MMA, 10-6 UFC) in the headliner of UFC Fight Night 53. UFC officials announced the new fight booking on Thursday.

UFC Fight Night 53 takes place Oct. 4 at Ericsson Globe in Stockholm. The event is expected to stream on UFC Fight Pass in the United States.

Nelson recently broke into the Top 15 of the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA welterweight rankings. Story is unranked.

Nelson is coming off his latest submission win, a stoppage of Zak Cummings in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 46 in Dublin less than three weeks ago. The win got him a “Performance of the Night” bonus, his second straight after a submission of Omari Akhmedov at UFC Fight Night 37 in March in London. So far, three of the Iceland native’s four UFC wins have come by submission.

Story got back in the win column this past month when he tapped out Leonardo Mafra at UFC fight Night 45 in Atlantic City, just three days prior to Nelson’s submission win. Story will be going after his first winning streak since 2011, when he had a six-fight run that included decision victories over current welterweight champion Johny Hendricks and former title challenger Thiago Alves. Since then, though, any win he’s had has been followed by a loss.

With the addition, the latest UFC Fight Night 53 card now includes:

• Gunnar Nelson vs. Rick Story
• Nico Musoke vs. Amir Sadollah
• Niklas Backstrom vs. Mike Wilkinson
• Ernest Chavez vs. Zubaira Tukhugov
• Dennis Siver vs. Robert Whiteford
• Jan Blachowicz vs. Ilir Latifi
• Marcin Bandel vs. Mairbek Taisumov
• Scott Askham vs. Magnus Cedenblad

For more on UFC Fight Night 53, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Gunnar Nelson)