Johnny Eduardo. That’s no shocker for Wood, but he was “a little bit surprised” that the UFC has him fighting in Utica and not in his native England last weekend.
“I thought that’s where they would have wanted me, but I think that the Liverpool card may have already been pretty stacked, so it made sense that they would put me on in New York instead. But I was over the moon just to get that call, really. Liverpool would have been nice because I would have been able to sell a helluva lot of tickets and would have been able to get a lot of family and friends up there. But I’m happy to be able to make the UFC dream a reality.”
Coached by UFC vet Brad Pickett, the two have developed quite a bond over the last few years, and you can tell that Wood is fighting as much for “One Punch” as he is for himself.
“I can’t even put into words how important it is to have Brad there,” Wood said. “The guy has been there from the start. I’ve only actually known Brad personally for about four years now, but I feel like I’ve known the guy all my life. The guy has passed on so much knowledge to me, and not just in fighting, but through wisdom and life experience. So for me to go out there now and take Brad with me and start sharing that experience, it means the world. I know it’s important for Brad, and with him retiring, I’m keeping him in that game too. He’s a very competitive person, so from being an athlete himself, he’s now very competitive with me, so he’s making sure I’m getting the right training in because he wants me to win just as much as I do.”
The 25-year-old Londoner turned pro in 2012, but it’s been in the last couple years that he’s really made his move, with his last four wins ending by knockout in the Cage Warriors promotion. And with that streak, it was clear that he was ready for the next step in his career.
“I think that’s how I felt for the last four fights,” he said. “I felt like these guys aren’t on my level and it’s nothing to do with Cage Warriors. They’re bringing in guys from all over the world for me. But I know that the UFC is the place where I need to be now to get people that are gonna give me a challenge. My last three fights were all first-round KOs, so I know that the UFC is that place I need to be to perform at my best now and show that I should be in there with the top guys in the world.”
And as a forward-thinking young man, Wood has already been analyzing his new peers on the UFC’s 135-pound roster, and he believes that he can take on any of them.
“If I’m honest, I’ve been doing it for the last year or so, looking at them and planning and plotting,” he said. “I’m looking at the top 15, and there’s no one in there that I think I can’t beat. They can put me in there tomorrow with (champion TJ) Dillashaw, and if I got that opportunity, I would grab that with both hands. I’m confident that I can go in there and give them guys a run for their money.”
Sounds like the British are coming.
“I believe it’s a new wave now,” Wood said. “We’ve got new guys up and coming, and I honestly think that we’re gonna start making waves. When I look at the bantamweight roster, I think that it was Americans and Brazilians up until where Brett Johns was ranked and I’m looking at that and thinking, ‘Man, they need an English guy in there, someone to shake things up a bit.’ It’s time for us to mark our territory.”
