Athletes
Nathaniel Wood Is Finally Comfortable
British Veteran Discusses Success At Featherweight, Fighting In London
“Comfort is key, I think.”
Nathaniel Wood was seated at home, fresh off a trip into London to tackle all his fight week obligations and media requirements ahead of this weekend’s fight card at The O2 Arena where faces Losene Keita. Through four UFC appearances in England’s capital, Wood is unbeaten and looking to stretch that streak to five.
When asked what it is about competing at home that makes him so dangerous, the thoughtful 32-year-old immediately pointed to being comfortable.
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“Being relaxed is better for me, and I think most fighters would say the same thing,” said Wood, who has spoken at length in the past about his struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and the anxiety he feels competing abroad as a result. “Now unfortunately, when I travel, I’m not relaxed. Abu Dhabi, I was with the family, so it was a lot better, but I’m not in my own bed, I’m not in my home comforts. If it’s somewhere far, there is jetlag and all those things. In London, I’m comfortable.
“Right now, I’m at home. I’ve been to the UFC (hotel), done what I’ve needed to get done, and now I’m here, living life like it’s a normal day until fight night. On fight night, I’ll go in there comfortable, and having the home crowd gives you that extra little something than if no one was really interested in who you are.”
Even when competing close to home, some athletes opt to check into the host hotel for the week. That’s not the case for Wood.
“I want my own bed,” Wood said. “It sounds cheesy, but I wanna be in bed with my wife; I don’t want some hotel where I don’t like the pillow… I want to wake up, give my girls a kiss when I go out, walk the dog; do normal things.”
Familiar surroundings have contributed to his routine success in London, but comfort has also been the key to his run of good form since relocating to the featherweight division as well.
Wood went 12-3 on the regional scene before earning a call to the UFC, winning and successfully defending the Cage Warriors bantamweight title in his last three bouts prior to stepping into the Octagon for the first time. He won each of his first three appearances under the UFC banner, establishing himself as a rising star in the 135-pound ranks, but injuries and the rigors of making the bantamweight limit made it difficult for him to compete as frequently as he wanted.
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After a lengthy stint on the sidelines, Wood returned to action — in London — in the summer of 2022 at featherweight, registering a unanimous decision win over Charles Rosa. Since then, he’s added five wins over his next six starts, including three straight heading into this weekend’s important pairing with Keita.
“Going back to what we just said, its comfort — I’m not dying to make weight anymore,” Wood said. “Don’t get me wrong: right now, I’m cutting weight. Right now, it sucks, and it’s uncomfortable, and I’ve still got to lose a significant amount of water weight, but my whole fight camp has been comfortable. I’m able to replenish, I’m able to train like an athlete is supposed to… Every fight I had at bantamweight, you didn’t need to tell me who I’m fighting. All I’ve got in my head is that I need to make weight, and then once I’ve made weight, it’s ‘Okay, we’ve got a fight tomorrow.’ Now, I’m training for a fight, and then two weeks out from the fight, it’s ‘let’s start cutting down on the calories now’ and suffering a little bit. But two weeks of suffering over eight weeks, 10 weeks?”
He paused and smirked.
Nathaniel Wood Fight Week Interview | UFC London
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Nathaniel Wood Fight Week Interview | UFC London
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“Mate, gimme this one any day of the week (laughs). My opponents probably only have a couple of kilos on me, and at the end of the day, if you think a couple of kilos is enough to completely change a fight, I don’t think the fighter was good enough to beat that guy. When I’m at sparring, I don’t go to someone and say, ‘You only beat me because you’ve got 1.5 kilos on me.’
“I think a lot of people are always looking for that little advantage, but my advantage comes in that I’m living a good life, I’m replenishing, I’m healthy, and I’m getting every bit of fuel I need for my training camps.”
Saturday’s matchup with Keita is fascinating on a number of levels, both for Wood himself and for the division as a whole.
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The 28-year-old was a simultaneous two-division champion with Oktagon MMA, one of the top European promotions in the sport, before signing with the UFC. His original debut was set for last September and was highly anticipated, but Keita missed the featherweight limit by three pounds and his bout with Patricio Pitbull was cancelled.
Now “Black Panther” gets a second chance to make a first impression, while Wood gets the opportunity to once again prove himself against a hyped younger talent in hopes of finally breaking into the rankings.
“You can look at it several different ways,” Wood said. “They could be looking at it like ‘This guy thinks he’s really good from Oktagon. Cool, let’s give him someone really good.’ He was originally meant to fight Pitbull. Other people, from what I’ve heard have been turning him down, he’s a tough opponent, and he hasn’t had a UFC fight yet… But I’m a fighter, I’ve got that dog in me. I’m here to fight, and if you think I’m ever gonna turn an opponent down, you’ve got the wrong person.
“If you give me a selection of opponents, I’ll pick the one that I think suits me best. If they gave me the choice of Keita or someone in the Top 10, I’m gonna take the Top 10 guy. But I’m never gonna be that guy to say, ‘Oof — he’s a tough fight. I’m not taking it.’ That’s just not me. I’m a fighter. Every opponent is the toughest fight of my life. That’s what I’m training for. When he’s done, out of the way, the next guy is the toughest fight of my life.”
When I mentioned the rankings, Wood looked away and grinned before performatively rolling his eyes. Like everyone in the sport, he longs for the day when he carries a number next to his name and can test himself against others in the Top 15 as well.
Despite his overall success since touching down at featherweight and coming off a quality win over Jose Miguel Delgado last October, Wood remains on the doorstep of the rankings and has reached a point where he’s trying his best to divorce himself from worrying about them.
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“One thing that’s in it is that you can’t control other fighters,” he said. “Let’s say, for example, three fighters in the division retire: there’s a good chance I could be ranked. I haven’t even fought, and now I can be ranked. Unfortunately, the division is stacked, and there are a lot of monsters coming through the division, and I guess it’s just a harder one to get them opportunities.
“At the end of the day, I think performances should be judged on how good a fighter is more than a finish, because we’re in four-ounce gloves and I could swing an overhand right that might be the worst right hand ever thrown — I close my eyes, it lands, I get a knockout, and ‘Oh sweet! Now I’m 13th in the world!’”
Wood chuckled.
“I think the guy that put on a three-round performance is better,” he added. “That’s just my opinion and obviously the UFC wants to see finishes, and I don’t know who the guys are that dictate where everyone is ranked, but I can only do what I can do. I can just keep chipping away at it and hopefully we’ll get there eventually.”
Not too long ago, that final sentence would have ended with “after another win this weekend” and not “eventually,” but Wood’s motivations have changed in recent years.
While he’s still fully committed to his professional career, his “why” shifted two years ago when his first daughter, Arla, was born, and the shift was cemented last year when her sister Layla arrived.
“They are super-happy, mate; they are melting my heart every single day,” he said. “My life has changed so much from having kids where now I want to earn loads of money because I want my girls sorted for the rest of their lives… We’ve got a nice house that we live in, but the mortgage is expensive. I wanna just make as much money for my girls and keep living this life; being able to be free, to go and spend the day with my girls, and not have to go and work a 9-5, do a commute up to London and back.
“Nothing phases me anymore. Designer clothes? I couldn’t care less. Watches? I sold all my Rolexes. I don’t care for any of that. All I want now is to build a Wendy house in the garden for the girls and be able to have my wife not work. I want her to be a full-time mum and spend the day with me and the kids. I don’t want her having to go back to a full-time job… That’s the motivation, that’s the goal. The only way I can do that is having more money in the bank, so I wanna get a nice win, double my check, get a nice bonus. Happy days.”
But more than a dozen years into his pro career and 13 fights deep in the UFC, the British veteran is fully aware that anything can happen come Saturday night at The O2, and stressing about it won’t change anything.
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So instead, he’s going to hang out at home, stay comfortable, and when the time comes, he’ll make the walk, step into the Octagon, and let the chips fall where they may.
“At the end of the day, it’s MMA and there’s a lot of luck involved,” he said. “So I’m just gonna go in there, do my ‘A Game,’ do what I’m supposed to do, and if the MMA gods are with me, I’ll come out victorious.”
UFC Fight Night: Evloev vs Murphy took place live from The O2 in London, England On March 21, 2026. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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