Gunnar Nelson has said his ribcage "completely folded" during a grappling session with Thor Bjornsson last year.
The gnarly injury further set back the UFC welterweight's plans for an octagon return after already sitting out for over two years following his loss to Leon Edwards in March 2019. By the time Nelson got back in the cage at UFC London earlier this month, he had been out of commission for 30 months.
The pair met at Mjolnir MMA in Reykjavik and shot a brief jiu-jitsu roll for the former world's strongest man's YouTube channel when Nelson picked up a rib injury. But he blames that injury on his own poor planning, and insists it didn't affect his relationship with the Game of Thrones star.
"Hafthor and I never stopped being friends," Nelson said in an exclusive chat with Mirror Fighting. "I don't hang out with him on a regular basis but we never stopped being friends.
"Yeah, we did that match, it was my fault really. I was kind of excited to try certain things, see if it was physically possible to get a guy like that with an arm bar from the bottom. That wasn't a good strategy.
"Obviously I knew that coming in but I was just curious if it was physically possible to do that. He ended up sprawling on me as I was kind of sideways underneath going for an arm and my ribcage just folded."
Nelson ended up recovering, and he returned to the cage on the same night, at almost the same time, as Bjornsson was facing Eddie Hall in their titanweight boxing clash. Both men won unanimous decisions, with Nelson impressed by his pal's ability to box sleekly against the hard-hitting Brit.
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The Icelander comfortably defeated Takashi Sato at London's O2 arena, while Bjornsson had it a little harder at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium. The giant former strongman was dropped twice on his way to a win, although he did manage to put Hall down on a number of occasions himself.
"I watched the fight after [my fight]," Nelson continued. "Obviously I knew the outcome before watching the fight but it was an exciting fight. I though Thor did really well, he looked slick.
"And fair play to Eddie as well, he played it well, it was a tough style he was doing, kind of a Marciano style. He was leaning hard and then swinging hard, he played his reach disadvantage well.
"Props to Eddie, he did really well and played his part really well but Thor was just the better man and better boxer."
