Issue 174

December 2018

After a winning start in the UFC, British fighter, Nathaniel Wood is a man with a plan for 2019. He wants a fight in London and to put on a show for his hometown fans. "I know I will be up there competing with the best Bantamweights in the world soon."

Stats:

• Nathaniel Wood
• UFC Bantamweight Age: 25
• Record: 16-3-0
• Team: NOVA FORCA / TEAM TITAN
• From: Carshalton, England 

here have been some outstanding debuts in the UFC this year, but very few had the impact that Nathaniel Wood achieved when he stepped inside the Octagon for the very first time on June 1.

The 25-year-old Londoner took on Brazilian veteran Johnny Eduardo who had 39 fights to his name and some notable wins in the UFC before facing Wood at UFC Fight Night 131. Coming o the back of a dominant reign as the Cage Warriors bantamweight champion where he completed his last three fights with three first-round finishes, Wood carried the weight of expectation on his young shoulders with many talking him up as one of Europe’s brightest young talents.

Such talk could have been a burden to the man nicknamed “The Prospect,” but as Wood explains, he walked into his debut free of any pressure.

“I don’t really get nerves and I knew I was ready,” Wood reflects. “This is what I love to do and this is what I choose to do so there’s no feeling nervous or anxious. I’ve never any doubt in my mind because I train with some of the best coaches in the world and our gym is on re at the moment. 

“I’m totally confident in my ability and I go in there with the attitude of what is the worst that can happen?” he continues. “There’s so much more to life than losing a fight or having to take a few punches. I enjoy fighting and the excitement of everything that surrounds it so I never walk in there with any pressure or feel that people are relying on me to win. I feel free in there and just go in there to enjoy it and put on a show.”

Wood expected to make his debut on the UFC Liverpool fight card in May but ended up having to wait until the week after to fight in Utica, New York. The event wasn’t the biggest and it didn’t draw the attention of some of the bigger pay-per-view events this year, but for Wood that was perfect to get his feet wet in the UFC and get a fight week under his belt in unfamiliar surroundings. It wasn’t until after the fight that the reality hit home that he’d fought inside the UFC Octagon and fulfilled the dream of putting on the famous UFC-branded 4-oz gloves.

“I’ll be honest with you, fight week genuinely didn’t feel that much different to Cage Warriors,” he recalls. “Because, for a UFC event, it was still quite a small one. It was nothing like I would imagine fighting on a Vegas fight card would be with Conor McGregor or anything like that. From the get-go, we were pretty much left alone. I just had to the photoshoot, the weight-cut and that was pretty much it. I found it comfortable and for a debut, it was good to feel relaxed.

“During and before the fight things didn’t even feel that different,” Wood continues. “When I watched it back on the TV though and I saw the highlights and me in the UFC gloves and in the cage, that’s when everything started feeling special. It wasn’t until after the fight when I saw the finish and hearing the commentators that made it feel like I was actually fighting in the UFC. That’s when it really hit home.”

Wood won the fight after weathering a storm from Eduardo in round one and coming back to sink in a beautiful D’Arce choke to get the submission win in round two. The British fighter’s face told the story of the early onslaught he had to endure, but the $50,000 bonus check and the adulation of a legion of newly-won fans more than numbed the pain in the immediate aftermath.

“After the fight, things felt incredible because it felt like I backed up all the hype that had built up behind me,” Wood says. “It was a great to feel like I’d lived up to people’s expectations. That said, physically afterwards I didn’t feel too amazing and I think I had a bit of a concussion, a busted nose and what not, but I was just so overwhelmed with the win that I didn’t care.

“Going online afterwards and just seeing the number of people talking about my fight and the finish, it was a bit overwhelming,” he continues. “Seeing the feedback and hearing people liked my fight meant everything to me and it was exactly what I wanted my debut to be like.”

With his debut win under his belt, Wood put out the challenge to any of the fighters who were still active and had beaten his mentor Brad Pickett. Avenging Pickett’s losses has always been something Wood has talked about since his days as the Cage Warriors champion and now he’s in the UFC, he’s got plenty of opportunities to do exactly that.

“Brad is a legend in this sport and yeah, I want to get revenge for him,” Wood explains. “Some of the guys that have beaten him as well, they’re also legends and it would be an honor to fight them anyway. This is a sport and this should all be a little bit of fun and I want to go in there and cause excitement against some of the guys that have beaten Brad.

“It would be amazing training for those fights as Brad would be up for it and I’d obviously be well up for it,” he continues. “I want to test myself against the likes of Thomas Almeida, Renan Barao, Eddie Wineland. I remember watching Eddie back in the days of the WEC and it would be amazing to fight him, a total honor.”

Whilst having respect for the likes of Wineland, the same can’t be said for Chito Vera who was the man that sent Pickett into retirement with a loss. Wood and Vera exchanged plenty of confrontational messages over social media during the summer but much to Wood’s disappointment, a showdown has not materialised.

“I obviously want that fight with Chito Vera but he’s doing everything possible right now just not to fight me,” Woods says. “He put up on social media that he needed an opponent for the fight card in Buenos Aires and it would’ve been perfect for me timing-wise. I put the challenge out there, I didn’t want any sort of Twitter beef, I was just like ‘I’m here to fight and that’s what we’re supposed to do; I’m game.’

“He then went totally in the different direction though and started calling out some other guys and saying that he didn’t need me,” he continues. “I just think he didn’t want to fight me and that he’s now pretending like he’s got bigger and better things. I don’t think he wants it anymore so whatever, I’m going to move on myself and I’m looking for bigger challenges anyway.”

Having seen things go exactly the way he planned them in 2018, Wood is now looking ahead to next year and setting himself more big goals. Whilst some would focus on fighting on the biggest events possible, the Londoner has his sights set on playing a major part in the UFC’s expected return to the English capital next March and fighting in front of his home fans for the first time under the UFC banner.

“Next year I want to be entering that top ten and I think I can hang with any of those guys,” he argues. “I couldn’t have planned this year any better and I know I can achieve so much more in 2019. I’ve got lots of time to work my way up the ranks and I know I will be up there competing with the best bantamweights in the world soon.

“Being in the top ten next year is a big goal of mine, but just as importantly, I want to fight on that London card in March,” he continues. “Of course, it’s a dream fighting in the likes of Las Vegas and New York and all that, but fighting at home would be amazing. I want to fight on that card badly and I want to put on an exciting fight for the fans, in front of my friends and family. I had a few nights like that in Cage Warriors but I think in the UFC it would be even bigger. You can’t replicate fighting at home.”

Having headlined his last three Cage Warriors events in London and never failed to put on a show for his hometown fans, Wood has garnered a sizeable fanbase back in his home country. His attitude to fighting is one that was instilled in him by his mentor Pickett who rarely failed to bring the excitement to the cage. Putting on a show for the fans is what Wood wants to achieve at all costs and what makes him a fighter that everyone is going to be looking out for in 2019.

“Having the support I do, it’s truly amazing and honestly from the bottom of my heart it’s everything I work for,” Wood enthuses. “I would rather be involved in a fight where I come away with a loss having been in an incredible fight rather than a fight where I win where it wasn’t that exciting and people are falling asleep.

“People are always asking me when I’m next fighting because I think they enjoy it when I fight. That to me is everything and all the fans need to know is that I’m going out there with every intention to win and put on a show for them.” 

*The following interview was conducted in 2018, since then Wood has gone on to win Fight Night 147 Bantamweight Final against José Alberto Quiñónez 16th March 2019*