Nathaniel Wood survives two knockdowns to defeat Andre Fili in back-and-forth war at UFC London
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us today, July 22, 2023, for our second UFC London event of the year.
Headlining the event is a matchup of heavyweight contenders, as no. 5 ranked Tom Aspinall (12-3) takes on no. 10 ranked Marcin Tybura (24-7) in the main event of the evening.
Co-headlining the event is a 125 lb affair between former Cage Warriors flyweight champion Molly McCann (13-5) and former Invicta FC bantamweight champion Julija Stoliarenko (10-7-2).
Our feature fight of the evening came in the featherweight division between former Cage Warriors bantamweight champion Nathaniel Wood (2o-5) and longtime divisional staple Andre Fili (22-10, 1 NC).
Wood had gone 2-0 since moving up to 145 lbs exactly 364 days ago, while Fili had gone 2-2 (1 NC) over his latest five appearances.
Continue reading to see how this featherweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Nathaniel Wood def. Andre Fili via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
It’s evident from the start of this bout that Fili is the much bigger party of the two.
Fili catches Wood with a beautiful left cross about 30 seconds in, dropping him on the spot, though Wood is right back to his feet. He stuns him with a crisp jab not long thereafter, before Wood attempts to find the range with his leg kicks.
It appears he does find his range, as Wood lands a thunderous overhand right that drops Fili midway through the opening round. He follows Fili to the ground, opening up with a barrage of strikes on the mat, bloodying Fili’s face in the sequence.
Wood stuns Fili again to begin round two, before he’s stunned with nasty left hook followed back a trio of knees that drop him once again. Fili proceeds to take Wood’s back, though he’s too high on it and is shook off. He does however remain on top in Wood’s guard until the round ends.
Both Fili and Wood are much more tentative in the third and final round, neither of them are offering up much as neither want to get dropped again; Fili’s been dropped once, and Wood twice. Each of them shot on, and failed on a single takedown attempt in round three as well, with the most significant strike of the final five minutes being a good left hook thrown and landed by Wood.
THE HOME TOWN BOY! 🇬🇧@TheProspectMMA gets it done in London! 🙌 #UFCLondon pic.twitter.com/Rm4qsW3K74
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) July 22, 2023
This was an absolute war through the first ten minutes of it!
Nathaniel Wood improves to 3-0 at 145 lbs today at UFC London.
If you enjoyed this piece, feel free to share it on social media!
