UFC 189 welterweights Gunnar Nelson and Brandon Thatch entered the cage in the exact same situation. Both men were the hottest prospects in the division and looked stellar for a time but lost to seasoned veterans.
Only one man would return to welterweight relevance...and that man would be Nelson.
After feeling his opponent out, the Icelandic grappler nailed a perfect jab-cross combination that rocked the lanky welterweight. From there, Nelson worked his preternatural grappling skills and scored a quick, impressive submission in the first round. So what did we learn from this fight?
Gunnar Nelson Is Totally Legit
This one is straightforward. The relatively small sample size with Nelson made it easy to question how good he was, and his loss to Rick Story gave the doubters plenty to work with.
Against Thatch, however, he demonstrated improved striking in addition to his established submission skills. On that alone, it is easy to buy into him as a legitimate welterweight who can hang with top-10 talents. There are loads of potential interesting matchups for him over the horizon, and there are few fighters that he couldn't beat.
Brandon Thatch Is Not Legit
Thatch has all the physical tools in the world. He has absurd striking power. He has reach that other fighters would kill for. Unfortunately, he basically has no grappling defense to speak of.
Former lightweight Benson Henderson was able to exploit those weaknesses when he fought Thatch earlier this year, and that was telling all on its own. Watching Thatch thoughtlessly give up his back against Nelson, however, was a different thing entirely.
Thatch's grappling simply isn't where it needs to be for him to contend with serious welterweight talent. He can surely still win fights in the UFC...but he really, really needs to fix this.
Still a card-carrying member of the Brandon Thatch fan club. Some holes to shore up but back-to-back change of opponents hasn't helped.
— Jon Anik (@Jon_Anik) July 12, 2015
Nelson Still Deserves Top-10 Opponents
Matchmaking is a tricky thing, and when a guy like Nelson loses to a guy like Story, it can result in a major drop in competition. This win, however, reasserts Nelson as an elite-level welterweight.
The 170-pound division is incredibly active over the next two months, so it is tough to tell who could wind up as an opponent for Nelson. Fights with Carlos Condit, Dong-Hyun Kim or Demian Maia would all be interesting.
Here's hoping Nelson walked out of this fight healthy. It would be best if he returned to the cage as soon as possible.
