Nathaniel Wood - Before The Bell EP.1

my name is Nathaniel wood I am a UFC featherweight fighter and I been training in mixed martial arts for 15 years now my whole life my dad's been doing martial arts himself so he always had taught me you know how to punch how to kick you know we've always had punch bags in our house yeah you know having my dad and my dad's my head coach now so you know having him involved in my life is um is a blessing you know there's a lot of coaches out there which may not have Fighter's best interest at hear

t and who better to have in my corner than my dad you know the man that would die for me if you like you know he's my dad so at the end of the day you know I've got the person that I trust with my life behind me you know when I step into the Octagon uh my role in Nathaniel's camp now is to just try and oversee that he isn't pushing too hard because he does have a tendency to work too hard can make sure he keeps away from all of the injuries because they're starting to take a toll as as if we're

all getting older um and maybe a a little buffer between him and other coaches um not all the not most of the time now but there is a bit where we all have a a conflict can take place and maybe can smooth that out a little bit better um and that's basically it I'm here to support him on his journey so if I'm honest the way I got into martial arts was I just left school and I was doing carpentry and I hated it I remember saying to my dad this isn't for me you know I do not want to be spending the

rest of my life doing this um I couldn't imagine myself in an office you know I can't sit still for more than 5 minutes and my dad said to me what do you want to do with your life and I said I want to be an athlete you know that was my kind of I didn't have any set sport I just said I want to be an athlete and I thought the only real sport that you can kind of maybe control your destiny yourself is a one-on-one Sport and at the time I was a big fan of the UFC which was quite new at the time you

know it's not like football that's been around for years and years and it was a sport that I thought you know if I train hard and I put the work in I'll reap the results and um yeah I just was like a duct to water you know I went along with my dad who was training in uh Brazilian jiu-jitsu at the time and uh I loved every minute of it you know I love the competition I love the sport athlete you know side of things and you know for me just being an athlete that was my my dream job really and I'v

e loved every minute since [Applause] Nathaniel he's almost out now there's the beautiful so Nathaniel wood gets the late finish with less than a minute to go that down Daniel Wood a winner in this UFC debut tonight There He Go oh the left it left hand really good position here that's theel wood comes home to London gets the submission win what a beautiful performance for the prospect we've been 15 years now the start of the start of the journey was was pretty much do as you're told then there w

as a a lot of turbulence um and now it's come to that I let him lead he's in charge of his his journey and I'm here to support him on that as far as I'm concerned a coach I try and get him to a place where he can walk into the cage and win obviously and as a dad I'm supposed to take his place and protect him um and it's very it is conflicted and I find it hard each time he [Music] fights at GB top team Tuesdays and Thursdays are the sparring mornings nowadays Nathan is here on time and ready to

go so on the Tuesday we have uh some boxing rounds followed by kickboxing into five 5 minute MMA rounds and then on Thursday there's five five minute MMA rounds followed by some groundw [Music] rounds [Music] I do feel like I almost have a set responsibility you know Brad was always moaning at me if you're late you know you got set an example people are looking up to you and I said to him I don't want people to look up to me you know I don't need them to look up to me and he said that's out of y

our control you're in the UFC you're where they want to be they're going to look at you and they're going to copy you so if you're turning up late they're going to turn up late they think if they's doing it I can it so I have tried to rain fers like that in now I do try to come in this gym and set an [Music] example the benefit for Nathan especially here is one that is not traveling 2 hours to get to a different gyms and to pretty much the weight category for him is's covered we've got wrestlers

we've got Strikers we've got Jiu-Jitsu guys tie boxers All Above and Below him and the same weight as him so the whole Camp can be pretty much covered for what they [Music] need [Music] training for me at the moment is to stay fit stay sharp and improve and I'm enjoying that you know it's nice to kind of be able to go to the gym and actually train for get better and not just train for a fight or an opponent in my head and I'm enjoying it you know it's nice to get out and let my frustrations out

and you know it's my place of Peace if you like it's the place where I'll go and and meditate session today people one two G um as a coach I know how hard he trains and that he's he's good at what he does but as a dad it's gets tiring when you see your son hurt um and even the winners come out broken and damaged if I was to walk into millions and millions of pounds the first thing I'd do is raack him out fighting you know you always have um cheers when you fight you know obviously everyone wins

you get your hand raised everyone cheers that's just the normal thing but to have a crowd erupt before the fight you know the day before we're just weighing we're just weighing in here you know that that was special to me you know seeing all the St George's flags and waving around and you know the crowd behind me that was a very special moment one his cage warriors uh time and he defended it and I just kind of looked and said listen you you've done really well um if you want it's time that you

can stop and make a move on to to a normal life and he just turned around and he said you don't realize how enjoyable how much fun it is to walk out and have people screaming and crying out your name and seeing the flags and he said it's amazing as a fighter I want first and foremost to be remembered as an entertaining fighter you know someone said to me you can be UFC champion but you're going to have to change your style and become boring let's say just hold on to people for dear life and uh y

eah I wouldn't take it you know I'd rather the crowd remember me as someone that they wanted to watch you know when you leave the arena after watching every fight they remember mine you know whether it's a win loss or Draw They Come Away thinking what an entertaining fight I put on me and Brad both have that same mindset you know at the end of the day we want to entertain the crowd we want to be known for being great Fighters and obviously he's retired now and he has been known as one of the bes

t fighters to come out of England so yeah I think I think that's where we kind of we gel you know we both have similar mindsets on how people should fight so I met Brad probably 10 years ago now I definitely think that he saw almost like a mini version of him in me you know someone who's down to scrap Who's down to entertain um we both agree that you know there's Fighters these days can perform just to win but you also have the fighters that perform to put on a show all three judges score this c

ontest 2928 for the winner by unanimous decision Muhammed hman na that for me was probably one of my hardest but it wasn't because I lost the fight it was because I knew that I walked into that fight not mentally in the game you know on fight day if someone had come along and said to me oh do you want to fight would have said nope sometimes if we had good fight Camp sometimes we're fighting for some illnesses and some injuries yeah it's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster at the moment I k

now that I'm way better than Muhammad neyar unfortunately it came at one of the most important times of my life this is your own battles that you got to deal with this just hit me out of nowhere I've got people that I need to fight for last bit last B good last fight yeah you know I'm training with a lot of anger inside me and then I'm hoping that I'm going to use it to uh to become the best fighter on the planet