Neil Magny: 'The stage is set' to make statement against Gunnar Nelson at UFC Fight Night 130

May represents a critical month for the UFC welterweight division, and Neil Magny is eager to make his mark with a win over Gunnar Nelson at UFC Fight Night 130.

With a number of critical 170-pound bouts scheduled for the coming month, Magny (20-6 MMA, 13-5 UFC) hopes he can show where he stands among the top contenders. He said his matchup with grappling ace Nelson (16-3-1 MMA, 7-3 UFC) is as important as any, and he wants to outshine his peers with a standout performance.

“We have six welterweights fighting within a week of each other,” Magny told MMAjunkie. “We have myself, (Kamaru) Usman vs. (Santiago) Ponzinibbio. You have (Darren) Till vs. (Stephen) ‘Wonderboy’ (Thompson). Within that week and all those welterweights competing, my goal and my job is to be the best one out of all six of those guys. The only thing I can control is me going out there and putting on an amazing performance. That will dictate what’s next in my career and it’s within my control.”

UFC Fight Night 130 takes place May 27 at Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Magny vs. Nelson co-headlines the event while Till (16-0-1 MMA, 4-0-1 UFC) vs. Thompson (14-2-1 MMA, 9-2-1 UFC) serves as the headliner for the FS1-televised card following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

One week prior to UFC Fight Night 130, Usman (12-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) faces Ponzinibbio (26-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC) in another main-event pairing at UFC Fight Night 129 in Chile. Magny said he doesn’t expect to get lost in the cluster of bouts and believes the situation is actually advantageous because it puts a spotlight on 170-pound fighters. In his mind, that’s a major chance to swoop in and garner some attention.

“The stage is set for me,” Magny said. “Here I am with a huge opportunity to go fight Gunnar Nelson with all these eyes on the welterweight division. I don’t need to steal the show because the eyes are already on this fight. It’s just up to me to go out and perform.

“I can’t go out on this fight and be cautious or have regrets about it. I want to go out there and just leave it all out there.”

Magny said UFC officials considered other opponents, but the Nelson bout was particularly attractive. Magny’s kryptonite throughout his career has been opponents with strong submission abilities, and Nelson is among the best in the weight class.

If Magny can overcome Nelson’s grappling, it would be a testament to his improvement, he said.

“I know there’s a big question mark if I can hang with elite grapplers in the game because of my submission losses,” Magny said. “I have six losses, and … four of them are by submission. Going into this fight, it’s a great opportunity for me to go out and show my ground game has improved and I’m a lot better than in past fights when it comes to the submission game. Gunnar does have the majority of his wins by submission, and that’s what excites me about this fight. It’s a big test for me, and it’s going to force me to rise to the occasion.”

Magny also said that beating Nelson is going to help him make up some ground that’s been lost in his career due to inactivity. His two fights in 2017 were his fewest in a calendar year since 2012.

“When I look at the past year, I didn’t shake up the division as much as I’d like to,” Magny said. “I spent nine months on the shelf after an injury and came back and went 1-1 at the end of the year. I can’t be too upset. All I can do is use it as motivation going into this fight with Gunnar Nelson.

“I want to have a fight with Gunnar Nelson to the point everyone is talking about it. That’s the kind of performance I’m going after, and everything that surrounds this fight is motivation for that. I don’t necessarily just want to win, I want to win impressively to the point where people want to see Neil Magny fight a big name next.”

For the latest on UFC Fight Night 130, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.