UFC London: Charles Rosa wants to knock Nathaniel Wood ‘back down to bantamweight’

A string of bad luck has left UFC featherweight, Charles Rosa, hungry to get back in the win column at UFC London.

He’ll take on hometown hero, Nathaniel Wood, in the Brit’s own backyard on July 23rd, and plans on spoiling the party for the UK crowd.

“I love it, that’s [one of] my favorite things – traveling and fighting,” Rosa told The AllStar. “You know, travel a little bit – and then go into someone else’s town and take their throne and become the king of England.”

“That’s the way I look at it, you know.”

The Boston native holds uber confidence heading into enemy territory and heralds a change in his training regime as the precursor for a turning point in his UFC career – likening his spotted UFC record to that of Charles Oliveira before his recent run of success.

“I’ve overcome so many odds in my life, in my career, that I know it can be done. I’m still here, you know what I’m saying, I’ve been in the UFC for 8 years now and there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ve trained with all the best guys in the world.”

Rosa’s banking on explosiveness being the puzzle piece he’s been searching for over the past eight years.

“I’m able to hang in there with anybody I fight, you know, and I’m good. But I changed my strategy a little bit,” the 35-year-old noted. “I’m working on my strength and conditioning and my explosiveness.”

“[My coach was] like ‘Charles, you’re fighting these fights like it’s a marathon… and these fights, even though you’re trying to kill the guy, it’s only 15 minutes… You gotta push as hard as you can for 15 minutes – you can be tired at the end, the fight’s over, it doesn’t matter’… So that’s what I’ve been working on.”

“People aren’t knocking me out or submitting me or just, like, killing me. It’s just like, it looks like they’re at a different pace to me. They’re fighting at a sprint and I’m fighting at like, a heavy jog… I’ma sprint these fights out man.”

An “undisciplined” bantamweight in Nathaniel Wood, Rosa believes, is the perfect opponent to test drive his new gameplan on.

“He’s probably gonna try to use his speed and his footwork, like you know, that’s what he’s gonna think. But, like, the shots are gonna connect, I mean he got knocked out by a [flyweight] in John Dodson, so like I don’t think his chin – his chin’s a little suspect I think.”

The insults didn’t stop there. Rosa took further shots at his upcoming dance partner’s past struggles making the bantamweight limit of 135-pounds, and claimed: “he just doesn’t feel like doing what he has to do.”

“That’s really all it is. He’s five foot six, you know what I’m saying, like, there’s no – he doesn’t look like a big jacked kid, he’s just not disciplined and that’s the way I look at it. He doesn’t feel like dieting, he doesn’t feel like making the weight., he’s undisciplined and that’s the type of fighter I’m gonna see in the cage; someone that’s too undisciplined to make their weight class, so they move up a weight class and he’s gonna see what happens when he fights someone bigger and stronger than him.”

“I’m the strongest and best I’ve ever been in my whole life, in my career, and I get this nice little man coming up weight classes, so I can’t wait to knock him back down.”

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Fighter profile

Charles “Boston Strong” Rosa is a 35-year-old male fighter from the United States with 14 pro wins and 7 losses. Rosa is scheduled to fight Nathaniel Wood at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall on Saturday, July 23, 2022.

Charles Rosa’s recent form coming into this matchup

Charles Rosa has gone 2-3 in the last 5 professional MMA fights.

• Loss vs TJ Brown • Decision R3 5:00 • 2022-01-15
• Loss vs Damon Jackson • Decision R3 5:00 • 2021-10-09
• Win vs Justin Jaynes • Decision R3 5:00 • 2021-06-26
• Loss vs Darrick Minner • Decision R3 5:00 • 2021-02-20
• Win vs Kevin Aguilar • Decision R3 5:00 • 2020-06-13

Charles Rosa’s next opponent: Nathaniel “The Prospect” Wood

Nathaniel “The Prospect” Wood’s recent form coming into this matchup

Nathaniel “The Prospect” Wood is a 28-year-old male fighter from England with 17 pro wins and 5 losses. Wood is scheduled to fight Charles Rosa at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall on Saturday, July 23, 2022.

 Nathaniel Wood has gone 3-2 in the last 5 professional MMA fights.

• Loss vs Casey Kenney • Decision R3 5:00 • 2020-10-24
• Win vs John Castañeda • Decision R3 5:00 • 2020-07-25
• Loss vs John Dodson • KO/TKO R3 0:16 • 2020-02-15
• Win vs Jose Alberto Quiñonez • Submission R2 2:46 • 2019-03-16
• Win vs Andre Ewell • Submission R3 4:12 • 2018-12-29

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