After suffering his first loss in the UFC as a featherweight, Wood
looks to regroup in an engaging matchup. The Londoner came to the
UFC in 2018 advertised as one of the world’s top bantamweight
prospects, and Wood lived up to the hype as he hit the ground
running, holding his own in all phases while showing a knack for
combining aggression with technical skill. Wood’s momentum was
halted with a knockout loss to John Dodson
in 2020, which was understandable, but after getting outpaced by
Casey
Kenney two fights later, “The Prospect” decided to move up to
145 pounds in an interesting gambit. Wood didn’t seem oversized for
a bantamweight and didn’t seem to possess the type of speed that
would pop up at featherweight, so it wasn’t clear how well his game
would translate in a higher weight class. It’s impressive that Wood
essentially picked up where he left off in terms of success,
scoring impressive wins over Charles
Rosa, Charles
Jourdain and Andre Fili.
It was only against Muhammad Naimov in October that Wood’s
physicality issues came to the forefront. Naimov—a large and
thickly-built featherweight—managed to drag Wood into a grimy and
foul-filled affair and hand him his first loss at 145 pounds. Wood
returns to take on Pineda, who has had a fun second act in the UFC
as an exciting veteran. “The Pit” had a solid if unmemorable
seven-fight run with the UFC from 2012 to 2014, after which he went
promotion-hopping for half a decade before returning to the Octagon
in 2020. Pineda’s kill-or-be-killed approach has brought
entertainment to the cage every time out, as he has honed his
skills thanks to years of experience while still having the
reckless mindset of a much younger fighter. Pineda can cause damage
at all levels, but over the long haul, he tends to overextend
himself or just charge into danger, as exhibited by the fact that
he has never won a decision in over 40 fights. Wood’s approach,
built around countering while staying aggressive, could be a bit of
a double-edged sword here. He should be able to outmaneuver Pineda
in most exchanges but figures to get hit hard at least a few times.
With that said, the lean is that the Englishman is durable enough
to survive over the long haul and increasingly take things over.
The pick is Wood via third-round stoppage.
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