Paris, France — Ahead of Saturday’s UFC Paris card, the promotion’s debut in France, a popular pick for Fight of the Night was Charles Jourdain vs. Nathaniel Wood.
The featherweight fight did not disappoint, going the full three hard-fought rounds, with both fighters taking damage. When all was said and done, Wood (19-5), a former bantamweight, came away with his hand raised — and spoke to Cageside Press and other media outlets about what that sort of recognition means to him.
“It says a lot about my style and Charles’ style. Obviously we both come to bang,” Wood noted backstage at the Accor Arena in Paris. “As much as I want to become UFC champion and win my fights, I want to be known as an entertaining fighter. Even if I’m getting booed today, I want everyone that was in that arena to go away and think ‘wow, I got my money’s worth on that kid’s fight.’ That’s the main thing I want, I want to give people a fight they want to see. And those 50G bonuses always help as well.”
With two straight wins in his new featherweight home, it would be tempting to see Wood back in action soon. But he did not come away from the fight with Jourdain unscathed — rather, he appears to have aggravated an existing injury.
“I do need to get my hand sorted. My hand’s been giving me grief for about two years now,” he revealed. “I think it needs operating on, but I’ve kind of been just having to crack on with it. I hurt it on Charles’ head tonight, it’s just an ongoing thing so I might have to actually get it sorted out for once.”
That said, Wood has no desire to be out too long. “I’m hearing stories and I’m hearing Chinese whispers that next year there’s going to be maybe a stadium card or something like this in London. So I’m a London boy, I want to be in that. So yeah, I won’t be looking at taking too much time off.”
Watch the full UFC Paris post-fight press scrum with Nathaniel Wood above.
