Nathaniel Wood will call for quick UFC London turnaround with victory over John Dodson

Nathaniel Wood became synonymous with London through his championship winning run with Cage Warriors and “The Prospect” isn’t ruling out getting a quick turnaround for the UFC’s trip to his hometown with a victory over John Dodson this weekend in Rio Rancho.

The Brad Pickett prospect is 3-0 in the UFC since signing for the promotion, with all wins coming via submission. And although it’s been 11 months since we saw Wood in action when he banked a submission victory over Jose Quinones at last year’s London show, it seems the English bantamweight is attempting to make up for lost time.

If everything goes according to plan and he claims the biggest scalp of his career in New Mexico, Wood insisted he’ll be making a request to UFC president Dana White.

“Provided I don’t come out with any winners injuries, I’m going to get on that mic and I’m gonna say, ‘Dana, please put me on that London card.’ I’d rather not fight five weeks after a fight usually, but for London? 100 percent, I could come out [of the Dodson fight], keep my weight low and I’m as fit as anything, so it’s not hard to just maintain that,” Wood told MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast.

“I’d rather fight five weeks after, rather than have [UFC] tell me I’ll be fighting nine weeks after because then I’ll want to eat a bit and I’ll put a bit of weight on. With five weeks after, I can just carry on doing what I’ve been doing for the past 10 weeks. And I’ll get to fight in my hometown again which is always a dream.”

While Wood admits it can be frustrating to be left off his hometown card, he understands that the UFC have a difficult balancing act to negotiate when matching fighters.

“It is a bit frustrating, but I’m not too upset by it. I know the UFC have to match people. I know John Dodson will be fighting in his hometown. If they put everyone fighting in their hometown there wouldn’t be a lot of fights getting made. So be it, the UFC want me fighting Dodson in his hometown, I’m happy to do that, but I’d like to still fight on this London card,” he said.

“Fingers crossed if I get a good win this weekend and there are no injuries, maybe they’ll give it to me.”

Check out Nathaniel Wood’s interview on Eurobash. It begins at 1:03:30.