Nathaniel Wood will now fight John Castaneda on July 25
Nathaniel Wood now has new opponent for his fight on July 25.
Originally Wood was going to fight Umar Nurmagomedov, the younger cousin of lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, but now he’ll face John Castaneda. MMA Junkie was first to report the news.
Castaneda (17-4) is a former Combate Americas bantamweight champion and after 21 fights he’ll finally make his long awaited UFC debut. From May 2015 to November 2017, he won 11 straight fights and he also competed on the first season of the Dana White Contender Series in which he picked up a win over Cheyden Leialoha by unanimous decision. Recently he is 1-2 in his past three fights.
Wood (16-4) is coming off the first loss of his UFC career in February when John Dodson stopped Wood 16 seconds into third-round. Prior to the loss, Wood won his first three UFC outings by posting victories over Johnny Eduardo, Andre Ewell and Jose Quinonez.
The July 25 card will be headlined by a big middleweight fight between former champion Robert Whittaker and former welterweight title challenger Darren Till. In the co-main event, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Mauricio Rua will meet in a trilogy, in which Rua is up 2-0. Also featured on the card will be former champions Fabricio Verum and Carla Esparza.
The event will take place on “Fight Island” in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.
The full fight card is listed below.
Darren Till vs. Robert Whittaker
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio Rua
Alex Oliviera vs. Peter Sobotta
Alexander Gustafsson vs. Fabricio Werdum
Carla Esparza vs. Marina Rodriguez
Nicholas Dalby vs. Jesse Ronson
Tom Aspinall vs. Jake Collier
Raphael Pessoa vs. Justin Tafa
Movsar Evloev vs. Mike Grundy
Bethe Correia vs. Pannie Kianzad
John Castaneda vs. Nathaniel Wood
Ramazan Emeev vs. Niklas Stolze
Jai Herbert vs. Francisco Trinaldo
Gadzhimurad Antigulov vs. Paul Craig
