Nathaniel Wood: Extreme Weight Cuts, Life In The UFC, And No Plan B...

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Nathaniel Wood** (0:30)
Had five fights when undefeated within like a year. I was like, right, let's go pro. Then from there went to the UFC when I finally started making some money.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:38)
Wow.

**Nathaniel Wood** (0:39)
Yeah. Look, I beat Chase Morton on Bellator or Featherweight. You know, I'm showing that weight isn't everything. You know, he had been fighting bare knuckle Muay Thai or something when I was born.

**Eddie Hall** (0:52)
Have you ever had any sufferings with mental health?

**Nathaniel Wood** (0:56)
Massively.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:05)
Welcome back to The Good, The Bad and The Beast.

**Eddie Hall** (1:07)
Today's guest is one of Britain's most exciting MMA fighters, a former Cage Warriors World Champion who's taken the experience onto the biggest stage, the UFC. He's known for his speed, skill and fight IQ and his own respect inside and outside the octagon. Please welcome Nathaniel Wood. How are you, brother?

**Nathaniel Wood** (1:27)
Thank you for having me. Big hand. I just see the grip strength thing as well.

**Eddie Hall** (1:33)
Oh, that's coming.

**Nathaniel Wood** (1:34)
I hope I'm not competing against you.

**Eddie Hall** (1:36)
I always find fighters have really good grip strength.

**Nathaniel Wood** (1:39)
To be honest, I wouldn't know. But I mean, if I'm going against you, I don't think I'm going to win.

**Eddie Hall** (1:43)
Well, I've seen you grapple and your wrestlers always have good grip strength. You have to. You're always manipulating wrists and elbows. I always find MMA fighters just like the grip strength. It's just phenomenal.

**Nathaniel Wood** (1:56)
It's the swollen joints you'll see on everyone's fingers.

**Eddie Hall** (2:00)
Why? Is that because of the manipulation?

**Nathaniel Wood** (2:02)
Yeah, where you give a call. When I used to do a lot of gi, I always get caught and the fingers just never seem to go back down. So getting a ring on, you've got to get a larger ring to get over the joint. And then once it's on, it's loose.

**Eddie Hall** (2:13)
So you're right, we're doing gi.

**Nathaniel Wood** (2:15)
Yeah, I need a tattoo on my finger like you've done.

**Eddie Hall** (2:17)
Yes, mate.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:19)
I learned the hard way.

**Eddie Hall** (2:20)
I got a ring caught once. Well, I was a mechanic, actually.

**Nathaniel Wood** (2:24)
Right, okay.

**Eddie Hall** (2:25)
And I remember changing a battery on a truck and it arced on my ring and fucking burned a massive hole in my finger.

**Nathaniel Wood** (2:34)
Yeah.

**Eddie Hall** (2:34)
So I never, from that day forward, never wore a ring.

**Nathaniel Wood** (2:36)
You can de-glove, can't you, your skin. I've seen one where I got caught climbing a fence.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:41)
Yeah, you can literally take your finger down to burn. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

**Eddie Hall** (2:45)
So where have you come from today, mate?

**Nathaniel Wood** (2:46)
So I have come from Epsom.

**Eddie Hall** (2:48)
Epsom?

**Nathaniel Wood** (2:49)
Epsom, yes, which is, you know, the Queen's Grandstand where they do the Epsom Derby.

**Eddie Hall** (2:53)
Okay, yeah.

**Nathaniel Wood** (2:53)
Yeah, so that's London. Yes, that's where I live now. Me and my wife moved there a year ago. So it's my first house, you know, I was in a little flat before, little detached three-bedroom house, little cottage-y style, got two daughters now. So it's a kind of really homely home, you know, it's a little bit more countryside than where I was growing up, which I'm glad, you know, the older I get, the more I want to move away from people.

**Eddie Hall** (3:17)
Join the fucking club.

**Nathaniel Wood** (3:18)
Yeah, you know, I always growing up for when my dad said, like, just wants to move to the countryside. But for me, I was like, boy, it sounds crazy. You want to live in central London. And now I'm like, no, just put me in a little farm somewhere.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:29)
Yeah, where you can keep on.

**Eddie Hall** (3:30)
So where do you grow up?

**Nathaniel Wood** (3:31)
So I've grown up in Malden, which is South London, on the Northern line on the very end, basically. Right. And I've grown up there my whole life with my mom and dad. Trained there, grew up, went to school. And that's it, I finally moved out of the village, only by about half an hour. And yeah, I'm enjoying it. You know, it's a little bit nicer where I am then than where I was growing up, so yeah, I'm happy.