John Edward Gunderson is a retired American mixed martial artist. He used to fight with the UFC and SCC also numerous other organizations being a champion or fighting for the championship in many of them. Once he was a top 10 lightweight outside the UFC Gunderson is also an International Fight League veteran who fought out of Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den and was a member of the Nevada Lions alongside winner Roy Nelson. He is currently training with Xtreme Couture and TapouT. a coach out of Syndicate MMA
Gunderson made his UFC debut at UFC 108 against Rafaello Oliveira with 12 days notice on January 2, 2010. He lost the fight via unanimous decision. Gunderson was supposed to make his next appearance against Paul Taylor at UFC 112, but the fight was canceled last minute due to Taylor not being medically cleared. Gunderson was scheduled to face Taylor at, but Taylor was forced out of the bout again. Gunderson fought and defeated UFC newcomer and Canadian kickboxing champ Mark Holst. Gunderson was expected to face Efrain Escudero on September 15, 2010 at UFC Fight Night 22, however Escudero fought Matt Wiman as Mac Danzig was pulled from the card due to injury. Gunderson instead faced returning UFC veteran and former number 2 world ranked lightweight Yves Edwards, and lost the fight via unanimous decision. He was later released from UFC.
Gunderson made his World Series of Fighting debut on June 14, 2013, against UFC vet Dan Lauzon at WSOF 3. He lost the fight via unanimous decision. He then faced Chris Gruetzmacher at WSOF 9 on March 29, 2014. Gunderson lost the fight via unanimous decision. SCC After winning his promotional debut with a fight of the night Gunderson Faced Team Alpha Male standout and coach Justin Buchholz. Being a 3-1 underdog Gunderson battered Buchholz with strong hooks and take downs eventually winning by Kimura in the 3rd round.
Other promotions
Gunderson faced Jeff Fletcher at Rage in the Cage 172 on June 7, 2014. He won the fight via guillotine choke, snapping his three-fight losing streak in the process.
Bellator and retirement
Gunderson was expected to face Alexander Sarnavskiy on October 10, 2014 at Bellator 128. However, Gunderson pulled out of the bout and then retired from mixed martial arts competition. His reasons for retirement was due to a "lack of drive to compete" and a "desire to move into other ventures." Gunderson retired with a record of 35–16–2. Gunderson retired with over 13 different titles in smaller MMA promotions and was for a long time one of the top lightweights on the regional circuit. Numerous times it seemed he could not get over the hump and break into the elite, even though he owned a few impressive stoppages over elite competitors.
