The world famous octagon will return to Sweden for “UFC Fight Night 53,” an 11 bout fight card that takes place October 4 live from the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm.
The event is headlined by a welterweight clash between Rick Story (17-8 MMA, 10-6 UFC)and Gunnar Nelson (13-0-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC).
Gunnar Nelson is coming off a submission win over Zak Cummings, which he earned in the co-main event of “UFC Dublin” just weeks ago. The undefeated fighter picked up his second-straight “Performance of the night” award with that win, this after earning a bonus for submitting Omari Akhmedov at “UFC Fight Night 37” this March in London.
Meanwhile, Rick “The Horror” Story will be looking to build off his July submission win which he earned over Leonardo Mafra. Prior to that, Story lost a razor close spilt-decision to TUF 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 171. The veteran welterweight is the only man other than “GSP” to defeat current 170-pound champ Johny Hendricks.
The evenings co-main event features featherweights Chan Sung Jung (13-4 MMA, 3-1 UFC) and Akira Corassani (12-4 MMA, 3-1 UFC) going to war in hopes of moving up the 145-pound ladder.
“The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung will fight for the first time since August of 2013, where he suffered a TKO loss (Shoulder Injury) to Jose Aldo in his bid to dethrone the champ. Prior to the loss, Jung had strung together three-straight octagon victories over opponents Leonard Garcia, Mark Hominick and Dustin Poirier. “KZ” was awarded “Performance of the night” bonuses for all three of those wins.
Meanwhile, Swedish featherweight fighter Akira Corassani will be looking to rebound from the TKO loss he suffered to Dustin Poirier in April. Prior to being finished by “The Diamond,” Corassani had put toghether a 3-fight win streak which included wins over Andy Ogle, Robbie Peralta and most recently Maximo Blanco.
The full “UFC Fight Night 53” lineup is as follows:
Main Card
• Gunnar Nelson vs. Rick Story
• Akira Corassani vs. Chan Sung Jung
• Jan Blachowicz vs. Ilir Latifi
• Niklas Backstrom vs. Mike Wilkinson
Prelims
• Scott Askham vs. Magnus Cedenblad
• Nico Musoke vs. Alexander Yakovlev
• Dennis Siver vs. Robert Whiteford
• Cathal Pendred vs. Gasan Umalatov
• Marcin Bandel vs. Mairbek Taisumov
• Krzysztof Jotko vs. Tor Troeng
• Ernest Chavez vs. Zubaira Tukhugov
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