On Saturday at UFC London, hometown favourite, Nathaniel Wood, will make his third consecutive featherweight appearance since his move from bantamweight in 2022.
The 29-year-old will clash with fellow banger, Andre Fili, who himself is coming off a decision win.
“The Prospect” admitted that he has been a fan of his opponent, Fili, since he started watching MMA, but still believes he is better than him in all facets of MMA. “I’m a big fan of him, way before I was even in the UFC I was watching him. He’s very talented and a very skilful fighter he’s a bigger name than Lerone who I was matched with originally so that always helps as well, I should get more out of this win than I would fighting other people.
“He comes to scrap I like that but I do believe i’m better in all areas that’s no disrespect to him he’s a talented fighter and very game, he’s been there 10 years. It’s hard to get in the UFC and it’s harder to stay so the fact that he’s been here this long just shows how talented he is, so a win over him will be good for my CV.”
Wood is arguably on the precipice of fighting inside the rankings, and with a win over the dangerous Fili, he can expect that his next fight will be against an opponent with a number next to his name.
Since moving to featherweight Wood has arguably looked the best he’s ever looked, even with him being relatively undersized compared to the other 145lb fighters. He said that despite being one of the smaller guys in the division, he still has attributes that other featherweights don’t.
“I’m improving in all areas obviously I never specify in any area I just train everything. I train grappling, I train striking, everything is MMA but I do believe that my speed is going to be too much for these featherweights, i’m probably going to be the smallest maybe they’re going to be stronger than me but I know for sure that they’re not going to be quicker than me, speed kills at the end of the day so I look forward to having that advantage.
“I’m picturing a second round TKO for myself.” Wood said.
Watch the full UFC London media day appearance by Nathaniel Wood above.
