Preview: UFC Fight Night 224 ‘Aspinall vs. Tybura’

Featherweights

Nathaniel Wood (19-5, 6-2 UFC) vs. Andre Fili (22-9, 10-8 UFC)

ODDS: Wood (-195), Fili (+165)

Wood’s campaign at featherweight is an interesting subplot in one of the UFC’s deeper divisions, and the Londoner looks to carve out more of a niche at 145 pounds here. Wood came to the UFC with a considerable amount of hype in 2018, and he lived up to it almost immediately, scoring complete wins over Johnny Eduardo, Andre Ewell and Jose Alberto Quinonez to announce himself as a bantamweight contender. However, 2020 saw Wood come back to earth a bit. John Dodson scored a sudden knockout win in typical “Magician” form, and a rebound victory over John Castaneda gave way to a frustrating decision loss against Casey Kenney. That latter loss lingered for a while, if only because Wood subsequently spent nearly two years on the sidelines, eventually making a return up at a featherweight roughly a year ago. The move up is an interesting one, if only because Wood was not a particularly large bantamweight and is now clearly undersized at 145 pounds. Nevertheless, he has made it work so far. His victory over Charles Rosa was an ugly one over a frustrating opponent, but he managed to outslug and outwrestle Charles Jourdain in an impressive bit of business in September. Fili is up next for Wood, as the Californian serves as a litmus test for an up-and-coming prospect once again. “Touchy” also came into the UFC as a hyped talent but got off to a rough start inside of the Octagon, in part thanks to his matchmaking. He had the misfortune of facing Max Holloway, Yair Rodriguez and Calvin Kattar all before they had established themselves as top featherweights. Even so, a 2018 win over Dennis Bermudez served as some evidence that Fili was starting to turn a corner. He rarely has the firepower to blow an opponent out of the water, but he showed an impressive level of wrestling to prove that he had fully turned into a well-rounded fighter. Since then, Fili has continued on the path of consistent improvement with mixed results. For every grimy win over opponents like Jourdain and Bill Algeo, there is a result like his quick knockout loss to Joanderson Brito. That sets up a fun dynamic. Wood is the harder hitter and likes to step in and trade, which should provide some opportunities for the Englishman to land some big offense or get outmaneuvered and hit back in return. Add in that Fili should have the chops to neutralize Wood’s takedowns more often than not, and this figures to be a relatively even slugfest that could go either way. The pick is Fili via narrow decision.

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Aspinall vs. Tybura
McCann vs. Stoliarenko
Wood vs. Fili
Muniz vs. Craig
Ziam vs. Herbert
Murphy vs. Culibao
The Prelims