Preview: UFC 321 Prelims

Featherweights

Jose Delgado (10-1, 2-0 UFC) vs. Nathaniel Wood (21-6, 9-3 UFC)

BETTING ODDS: Delgado (-148), Wood (+124)

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Wood’s UFC career has mostly been a case of two steps forward and one step back—a trend that the Englishman looks to break in this encounter. Wood came to the UFC in 2018 and looked like a complete fighter, capable of handling himself anywhere with a consistently aggressive style. While Wood’s wins were impressive, “The Prospect” hit a clear wall with that hard-charging approach in losses to John Dodson and Casey Kenney. The Kenney loss caused Wood to make a surprising move up to featherweight, which figured to be an interesting gambit. He would clearly be undersized in his new division but might be able to find some added success as a faster fighter. Wood’s move up paid some immediate dividends, as wins over Charles Jourdain and Andre Fili seemingly had him knocking on the door of the UFC’s featherweight rankings. However, Wood instead got a surprising step back against Muhammad Naimov and even more surprisingly lost the fight, finding himself constantly clinching with a much physically stronger fighter and struggling to build much momentum. As with most of Wood’s losses, he has bounced back to fight in even more impressive form, taking apart dangerous finisher Daniel Pineda before showing off his speed advantage against Morgan Charriere. Still, history has repeated itself. Wood once again figured to get a step up the ladder, only to wind up in a matchup that’s all risk and little reward, as he looks to stave off a rising talent in Delgado. The MMA Lab’s Delgado was a standout on the 2024 edition of the Contender Series, but like a lot of recent UFC signings, he figured to be a few years away from maximizing his potential. However, Delgado seems to be forcing the issue, as he got thrown into what looked like a tough fight against Hyder Amil. While Amil has made a career out of leaning on his durability to fight with aggression, Delgado needed just 26 seconds to crack what figured to be an uncrackable chin with a brutal combination of strikes. That’s what makes Delgado particularly dangerous. He usually needs more time to heat up, but while his strikes might not often be the prettiest, he chains them together with consistency and aggression once he gets going, banking that something will eventually land with fight-ending power. There’s a decent chance this winds up as the fight where the issues in Delgado’s approach get exposed. With that said, it does seem worth the flier to take the younger prospect, given that Wood can usually pressure his way into some tough moments. One also must take into account the Englishman’s seeming knack for a poorly timed loss. The pick is Delgado via second-round knockout.


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