Victory at the NAGA Championship
November 9, 2008: Gunnar competed last night at the North American Grappling Championship in New Jersey and won the gold in No-Gi and silver in Gi! In No-Gi (middle weight) Gunnar defeated the Brazilian veteran Jorge "Macaco" Patino in the finals. Macaco is of course an illustrious Brazilian vale tudo fighter, with famous Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills, whose career began back in the 1990's (Macaco has 44 MMA fights according to his HL clip on YouTube). Gunnar then also competed in Gi (cruiser weight) and won silver after a battle against another veteran, Dan Simmler, in the finals. As seen on Dan's BJJ school website he is a highly decorated and an active competitor since 1999 and has been a top five nationally "ranked" competitor in the USA for seven years (including four years at #1).
Gunnar’s win over Macaco is a huge accomplishment for the 20 year old Icelander and even more impressive is the fact that Gunnar didn´t give up a single point in all his matches in the noGi competition. For our Icelandic readers here is an article about this in Icelandic.
"Macaco" Jorge Patino Gunnar Nelson William Hamilton
Gunnar the first Icelandic BJJ Champion
October 27, 2008: Gunnar took home three gold medals from the first Icelandic Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championship yesterday. He won his weight class, the open weight class and then took the third gold in the team tournament. His home club, Mjölnir - SBG Iceland, won most medals of the four BJJ clubs in Iceland. Gunnar had about 10 matches at the Championship and won them all without giving up single point. For our Icelandic readers, here is a news report of the tournament from RÚV - The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service last night.
Gunnar wins gold at GB Grappling Open
September 15, 2008: Gunnar took the gold at the 2008 Great Britain Grappling Open National Championship yesterday. The GB Championship was held in Derby, England, and Gunnar participated in the -80kg advance category (No-Gi). Gunnar had four matches and won them all, two on points and two with submission. The victory earns him a qualification for the FILA World Grappling Championship held in Lucerne Switzerland 20/21 of December 2008. However, Gunnar being Icelandic, the victory didn’t win him a seat on British grappling team. That seat goes to the British opponent that Gunnar defeated in the finals.
KO victory in Copenhagen
September 6, 2008: Gunnar defeated the experienced Brazilian Iran Mascarenhas at the Adrenaline 3: Evolution in Copenhagen tonight with at great standup KO late in the second round. Gunnar landed some great shots in the round and finally put Iran out with good right hand. Both fighters came out ready to put on a war and a great show. Gunnar shot in at the beginning of the fight but slipped while Iran caught him with a right and they ended up on the ground with Gunnar in bottom guard. However the 2nd degree BJJ black belt was unable to pass Gunnar’s guard and after about two minutes they were back on their feet. After that the fight was a stand-up war. Iran tried some leg kicks but they seemed to hurt him more than Gunnar. The fighters changed strikes for the rest of the round. In the break Gunnar didn’t sit down at all and his corner man (Karl Tanswell) stayed in the ring only for a few seconds. It must have been uncomfortable for Iran, as he sat in his corner, to watch Gunnar standing the whole time and staring at him for more than half the break to come out to fight. Early in the 2nd round Gunnar tried a kick that Iran caught, swept Gunnar to the floor and tried to soccer kick him in the head while he was getting up. The referee gave Iran a warning and he apologise for the mistake. After that it was all Gunnar throwing bombs at Iran and getting great support from his many Icelandic supporters that came to Denmark to watch the fight. Finally Gunnar bombed Iran with some great combinations and knocked him out in the corner with a beautiful overhand right 3 min 22 sec into the round. Certainly at great win for the 20 year old Icelandic fighter against the much more experienced 30 year old Iran whose record was 13-3 before the fight. Gunnar is still undefeated in his MMA career. 
Gunnar fighting Iran Mascarenhas in September
August 11, 2008: Gunnar will be fighting the experienced Brazilian Iran Mascarenhas at the Adrenaline 3: Evolution in Copenhagen on September 6th. Iran is a solid black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu who had his first MMA fight ten years ago and according to the Adrenaline Sports website he’s the most experienced fighter of the entire Adrenaline 3 fight card. He has been fighting in almost every single grappling tournament in Scandinavia since he moved to Denmark some years ago and won many medals (including the gold on Scandinavian BJJ Open few years ago). Iran’s last MMA pro fight was two years ago against the extremely strong Swedish fighter Thomas Valentin. Although Iran fought a great fight and was dominating the fight, he was taken by surprise by a strong kimura and was forced to submit to the Swede. Since then, Iran has focused on his grappling but now it is time for his long awaited come back on the MMA scene. Iran who is 30 years old has been living and teaching in Copenhagen for some years now and has his own competition team in Denmark, the Mascarenhas team. So even though he’s Brazilian, Copenhagen is his home ground now and he will without a doubt be getting a lot of support by his students and co-trainers. Iran say’s that he is training very hard for this fight and preparing himself well for his new enter into the MMA world (here is a video of Iran talking about the upcoming fight against Gunnar). Gunnar is also ready and training hard. He is now in Manchester preparing with Karl Tanswell in SBG UK for this fight and aiming for a victory as always.
Renzo Gracie and Gunnar on TV
June 30, 2008: Renzo Gracie honored Iceland and the club Mjolnir with a visit earlier this month. Friday night (June 27) there was an interview with him and Gunnar about BJJ on the news of Station 2 in the Icelandic TV. Gracie spoke highly of Gunnar and his potentials and of others at the club also. Some of this interview is in Icelandic (Gunnar's part) but those that want to hear Renzo (in the beginning, middle and the end) will just have to live with that. The interview is about 3-4 minutes.
Gunnar awared a brown belt in BJJ
June 28, 2008: Gunnar's tonight grappling fight against Piotr Stawski went the whole 10 minutes and was therefore declared a draw. After the fight Gunnars trainer, John Kavanagh, announced that Gunnar had been awarded a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Gunnar and "Goliat"
June 27, 2008: Gunnar will be competing tomorrow night (June 28th) against a big and powerful opponent, the polish Piotr Stawski. This will be a 10 minute grappling super fight at the Ring of Truth tournament in Dublin, Ireland. The fight is a submission only fight, so there will be no points, only victory by a submission or a draw if the fight goes the 10 minute distance. The polish grappler and former judo fighter has about 30kg weight advantage over Gunnar and has powered his way through the Irish BJJ and Submission Wrestling competition scene, winning the gold both in Gi and No-Gi at the Irish Munster BJJ open. Two weeks ago (June 14th) Stawski won the Irish National Submission Championships 2008. He runs a BJJ club in Ireland and is very athletic, as seen in this exhibition video (Stawski in black). This will likely be a very hard fight for Gunnar, giving up a great weight advantage against this vastly strong, fast and explosive opponent.
Gunnar is home from Hawaii
June 5, 2008: Gunnar arrived home from Hawaii yesterday morning after spending 3 months training with BJ Penn and his fight team in Hilo. Gunnar said his stay there was fantastic, both the training and the time there in general. “I got to train with high level fighters that really know how to work as a team and help each other’s out so the team can be better, and that creates a vibe that you want to be part of, and it helped me get to the next level of my training. When I was not training I was enjoying the beautiful Hawaii, going to the beach, jumping cliffs, climbing coco trees and having the time of my life!” says Gunnar who emphasis he can’t thank BJ Penn, his family and everyone involved in his gym enough for their help and hospitality. “If you want to combine top level fight training with a fantastic time and learn a lifetime of knowledge, Hilo is the place.”
Gunnar takes the gold at the Hawaiian Open
June 2, 2008: Gunnar participated in Hawaiian Open Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu last night and won 1st place in the middle weight advance No-Gi category. Gunnar is now heading home to Iceland after spending 3 months training with BJ Penn and his fight team in Hilo, Hawaii. He'll then be going to Ireland in two weeks and staying there and in England for a month or so training with John Kavanagh and Karl Tanswell.
Gunnar is in Hawaii
Mar 14, 2008: Gunnar has arrived to Hilo in Hawaii and will be there for the next 2-3 months training with BJ Penn and his fight team. As most MMA fans know BJ is now preparing for his UFC World title defense against Sean Sherk but the fight will take place at UFC 84 in Las Vegas, May the 24th. This is of course a great opportunity for Gunnar to train among many of the very best MMA fighters in the world today.
Interview with Gunnar on national TV
Feb 5, 2008: There was a very good interview with Gunnar about his training and MMA on RÚV - The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service last night. Gunnar discussed his MMA and BJJ training and the great rising of those sports worldwide.
Gunnar in Fighters Only Magazine
Jan 27, 2008: The newest issue of Fighter Only Magazine (February) includes a very good interview with Gunnar in the article Wanderlust (p 53). There is also a review (p. 78) about Gunnar’s victory over Barry Mairs where it says about Gunnar’s performance “At 19 years of age, his clinical dismantling of game opponent Barry Mairs showed a maturity beyond his years. With excellent positioning and balance, he used a devastatingly precise ground 'n pound game to put his opponent to sleep midway through the first round.”
We also strongly recommend the editors, Hywel's Teague, article “Prodigies” (p. 26). Here is a glimpse from that article: “I've spent time with a fighter I consider to be a true prodigy. I'm hesitant to give his name in case I place a curse on this young professional, but at only 19 years old, I believe him to be the real deal.
Watching him fight is like watching a Hindu cow stroll through the streets of New Delhi he is so calm. He has two years of training in mixed martial arts (MMA) and BJJ under his belt, yet taps out black belts with years of experience. When he isn't training, he is thinking about training, running through moves in his head and playing out strategies. He eats, breathes and lives MMA.
This young fighter also trains with the best to become the best, and soaks information up like a sponge, another characteristic of a prodigy. BJ Penn famously asked Frank Shamrock to teach him one thing a day, he was that quick at picking things up. Able to assimilate knowledge at a breakneck pace, once he was shown how to do something it would be part of his game forever, a remarkable thing for a fighter to do.”
Gunnar offered to fight for the Adrenaline Sports title in Copenhagen, Denmark
Jan 20, 2008: Gunnar had been offered a possible title fight in Adrenaline Sports - Rise of the Champions tournament in Copenhagen, Denmark, in April. Unfortunately he is not able to accept this offer because it doesn’t fit in his training plan, but Gunnar will presumedly be in Hawaii in March-May training with the UFC World Champion, B. J. Penn’s, fight team.
For our Icelandic readers here is an article about this on the Icelandic news site, VISIR.
Pictures and slideshow video of Gunnar's victory over Barry Mairs
Dec 11, 2007: We've got some pictures and a slideshow video of Gunnar's victory over Barry Mairs.
Gunnar takes Barry Mairs out with a 1st round KO!
Dec 9, 2007: Gunnar just defeated the British Commando, Barry Mairs, with a 1st round KO at Angrrr Management: Get ready for WAR event in Weston Super Mare, England. Barry Mairs was coming from a 1st round KO win at his last fight but Gunnar took him to the ground early in the 1st round and finished the fight with some great Ground and Pound that knocked Mairs out 3:38 minutes into the round. Great victory and Gunnar will now be heading home to Iceland for the Holydays. More pictures coming soon.
Gunnar defeats Niek Tromp in less than two minutes
Nov 24, 2007: Tonight Gunnar def. Niek Tromp (Team Duncan - Holland) by submisson due to strikes in the 1st round (1 min 50 sec) at Cage of Truth: Battle on the Bay at Donahgmede in Dublin, Ireland. Tromp had 15 victories under his belt before this fight and only two losses, both by decision. But that didn't make any difference tonight when he met the Icelander who surprised the Dutchman with his great ground skills and won the fight in less than two minutes. Another fighters trainer later commentated that “Gunnar showed some incredible GnP ability. It was like watching a shotgun reloading each time- click click-boom, I've never been on bottom getting hit that accurately... and I have no desire to do so in the future!” See here...
Double victory for Gunnar at the Irish BJJ Open
Oct 20, 2007: Gunnar participated in the Irish BJJ Open and took the gold, both in his weight class and in the absolute class. Icelandic BJJ fighters have join in the Irish BJJ Open before but never won a medal, let alone double gold medal! Gunnar won two of his bouts with an Armbar submission, one with a Side Choke and the rest on points.
Gunnar wins again in the 1st round
Oct 6, 2007: Gunnar def. Adam Slawinski (Baltic Fighters - Poland) by TKO in the 1st round (2 min 30 sec) at UFR10: Tribal Warfare in Galway, Ireland. Slawinski who was at the top of the Irish MMA League never had a change against Gunnar who took back mount in the beginning of the first round and punish the Polish fighter until the referee had seen enough and stopped the fight two minutes later. See here...
Gunnar takes Driss El Bakara out in the 1st round
Sep 29, 2007: Gunnar def. Driss El Bakara (French Top Team - France) by armbar submisson in the 1st round (3 min 46 sec) at Cage Rage Contenders: Dynamite at the National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Bakara had just come of a good 2nd round win at CR - Contenders 5 where he won by RNC. But the Frenchman had no answer to Gunnar's great ground game. Gunnar landed a takedown off a jab straight away in the beginning of the round. He then secured mount and landed some great strikes. Securing an arm, he pounded his opponent before finishing with an armbar. Driss momentarily lost consciousness from Gunnar’s strikes, before being woken up by the armbar – this has since been christened the “alarmbar”. A commentator on the Ring of Truth website said that Gunnar “looked amazingly zen-like and composed. It was one of those situations where he looked so relaxed it was like he was just training in the gym, methodically getting mount and then calmly timing his strikes. He threw less from top than anyone else on the night, but he landed everything and you could hear the impact.” See here...