Nathaniel Wood ‘Ready For The UFC’, But Only After Dominating At Cage Warriors 92
Nathaniel Wood is often being linked with a call up to the UFC, but this weekend he’s totally focused on defending his Cage Warriors bantamweight title for the second time.
Wood (12-3) has put together an impressive four fight win streak and was involved in one of the fights of the year in 2017 where he went to war with Welshman Josh Reed in one round thriller.
That fight going viral got the attention of the world and talk of him being signed to the UFC quickly followed.
Speaking to MMANytt.com earlier this week, Wood didn’t deny there had already been discussions, but said he was only thinking about his fight with Luca Iovine this Saturday.
“I can’t deny that we haven’t been in talks with them,” Wood said.
“I leave that to my manager and stuff.
“For me, the focus is just on getting past Luca and getting the job done on Saturday night.”
Whilst focused on the job at hand, Wood is fully confident that he will one day step foot inside the UFC Octagon.
Other fighters in the UK choose to campaign online and get their fans to help them get the attention of the UFC brass, but Wood is happy to go about it differently and simply just let his fighting do the talking for him.
“I’m always confident that I’m going to get into the UFC,” Wood said.
“It’s the biggest platform with the biggest stars in the world.
“There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be there.
“It’s just a matter of when it comes, but I’m not one of those fighters that is going to beg on Twitter and devalue myself.
“When the UFC comes, they will come and all I can say is that when they do come, I’ll be ready.”
Having been dragged into a war with Reed in his last fight, Wood this weekend will be looking for a totally different type of performance. The Londoner said he wants to show his home fans his best and get out of the cage unscathed.
“I want them to see a dominant performance,” Wood said.
“The last fight was a bit back and forth, but this one I’m not anticipating that at all.
“I’m going to go in there, get the job done and come out injured and healthy.”
Watch the full interview:
