Athletes
Focused Nathaniel Wood Primed To Shine At Home
Londoner Discusses Daughter’s Health, Mindset Ahead Of Homecoming Clash With Morgan Charriere
Nathaniel Wood earned a unanimous decision win over Daniel Pineda last time out in Manchester, but the 31-year-old featherweight will be the first to acknowledge he was kind of on autopilot throughout the fight. He looked solid, hurting Pineda multiple times while racing out to a two-round lead, but his thoughts weren’t on the dangerous veteran in front of him; they were back in London with the family’s youngest fighter, his daughter, Arla.
Born at the end of April, she faced health issues straight away, and was subsequently diagnosed with having a hole in her heart that would eventually require surgery to repair. In the days leading up to his bout, his wife brought her to the hospital out of extreme precaution, and Wood couldn’t keep himself from worrying more about the situation at home than the matter at hand.
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"It was super-tough,” Wood said of his last fight, just a handful of days away from returning to action at home in London against Morgan Charriere. “The fight was in Manchester, so it was in the U.K., but it was nowhere near where I live, so I had to stay up at the hotel.
“My mind wasn’t really on the fight, and on fight week, I was focused on home. The way my mind works with my OCD and my anxiety, I think about what’s going on at home, where most people would think about what’s going on with the fight. You’ve seen fighters before where they say, ‘The family doesn’t matter right now; it’s the fight,’ but, for me, it’s the other way around. I’m always thinking about my family, what’s going on at home.
“The fight for me? That’s easy; that’s what I do for fun.”
The entire situation was an avalanche of triggers for the British veteran, who has been candid about his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety, and how the two intertwine to bring about periods where he can’t escape the catastrophic thoughts racing through his mind, regardless of how unrealistic they may sound.
For the last year, fighting abroad has been a bridge too far for the talented former Cage Warriors champion, who carries a 20-6 record into the weekend, as contemplating being unable to get home in a timely fashion if something came up was too much. Manchester was certainly better than being in Las Vegas or somewhere else around the globe, as he could hustle home in four hours, but even that was too great a distance at the time to allow him to get his brain focused on Pineda and putting on the kind of performance that would carry him forward in the talent-rich featherweight division.
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Thankfully, his daughter’s health is much better as he readies for his clash with “The Last Pirate,” giving him one less thing to worry over and fixate on as he readies to make the walk on Saturday.
“She is very well, thank you,” Wood said when asked for an update on his first-born, who will become a big sister later this year. “She is the happiest girl I think I’ve ever met — she’s always smiling, it doesn’t take a lot to get her laughing.
“Health-wise, we’ve got a few appointments coming up to see how the hole in her heart is doing, but I think the operation won’t be for a couple more years; I think they want her to grow up and get as big as possible. So yeah, she’s very happy and melting my heart every day.
“It’s nice now that we’ve had the feeding tube taken out, because that wasn’t very pleasant for her,” he added. “Now that that’s out, at the moment, touch wood, she’s eating quite a lot. That’s a good sign and hopefully we can keep it out for the time being.”
In addition to Arla being in good health, the fact that the fight is in London provides a sense of calm and focus for Wood, as well, as rather than spending the week in the host hotel, he’ll be home every night before taking a couple hours on Saturday to go to work, returning home once he’s done handling his business.
And when it comes to fighting in London — or England as a whole, really — there are few more rock-solid inside the Octagon than Wood.
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“The trick of being in London, in my hometown, is that I can focus purely on the fight; I have no exterior worries going on about what’s going on at home,” said the GB Top Team man. “When I fight in London, with that crowd, I feel like there’s too many people here for me to let them down.
“I feel like when I fight, I’m fighting for 20,000 people.”
While he struggled to stay dialed in against Pineda, Wood has been fully focused through his preparations for this weekend’s clash with Charriere, and touched down at the outset of fight week locked on the target.
"Right this moment, going into fight week, I feel bulletproof,” he said when asked about his frame of mind and focus. “I think come Saturday night, everyone is going to see the work I’ve put in during fight camp.”
Though not the ranked opponent Wood had lobbied for following his win over Pineda, landing opposite Charriere is arguably the next best option, if not better than facing some of the lesser-known, but ranked, competitors in the 145-pound weight class.
The 29-year-old Charriere has a massive following in his native France and strong roots in the UK fight scene, having been part of a featherweight title triumvirate with fellow UFC London combatant Jordan Vucenic and Northern Ireland’s Paul Hughes a few years back under the Cage Warriors banner. Since touching down in the Octagon, “The Last Pirate” has gone 2-1, earning a pair of stoppage wins on home soil in Paris while dropping a split decision to streaking veteran Chepe Mariscal in between, taking home a post-fight bonus in each appearance.
“Morgan Charriere is a very exciting fight, a massive name,” Wood said, beginning to offer his thoughts on the matchup and his opponent. “He’s got a bigger name than (lots of people in the Top 15). He’s a huge name in France, it’s an exciting matchup, and I’m totally up for it.
“I look at him similar to how I look at myself: he’s a high-level grappler — a black belt in judo and jiu jitsu — however, he prefers to strike; a lot of his fights have been a good scrap. We’re a very similar age - I’m two years older than him - and our records are pretty well identical — we both have 20 wins; he has 10 losses, I have six losses — and we were both Cage Warriors champs.
“Stylistically, we’re very similar, and that makes for a very exciting fight,” he added. “Training for a pure grappling wrestler makes for a bit of a (groans). With Morgan, I don’t know what he’s gonna do! He probably don’t know what I’m gonna do! Let’s see where it goes. I think the fight is just gonna be a good mixed martial arts fight.
“I like the guy, he’s very cool, and so I’m quite happy to go in there on Saturday night and swing for the fences with him.”
As much as he’s ready to slug it out with Charriere if need be this weekend, the technical Brit knows that in order to secure the opportunities that he covets, getting into a coin-flip with “The Last Pirate” and eking one out isn’t going to get him to where he wants to be.
“I need to win confidently, not just scrape a split decision win,” he said. “Ideally, get a finish, but just show I’m levels above him, show that I’m capable of putting on good performances; go in there and put on a masterclass.”
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From there, a quick turnaround would be ideal, so the proud father of one can get one more in before becoming an even more busy father of two later this year.
“I want to get one in before the baby is born, but I do want to be around for the birth. I just have to get this fight out of the way,” added Wood. “(So the plan is) go in there, smash Morgan Charriere, come out uninjured, healthy, and get back in there.”
But for right now, thankfully, Wood is focused exclusively on the task at hand, and once again making the walk in front of a raucous, partisan crowd at The O2 Arena in London.
“I can’t wait,” he said when asked about striding to the Octagon on Saturday. “It’s an addictive feeling. I’ve experienced it and I want to experience it again.
“I’m looking forward to the whole process; everything about it. It’s gonna be special."
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