The British UFC fighter battling OCDpublished at 14:43 BST 23 October
Wood v Delgado
Tom Aspinall isn’t the only Briton on this weekend’s card. Featherweight Nathaniel Wood is also in action against Jose Delgado.
Wood is preparing to fight in Abu Dhabi for the fourth time. His last visit in 2023 ended in defeat to Muhammad Naimov following struggles with his mental health.
The Londoner has anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) – a mental health condition where a person has obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours., external
“It comes in waves. Sometimes you can be absolutely fine and then you could have what I call a ‘dark cloud day’ where you’re just anxious and obsess over things,” Wood told BBC Sport.
“Unfortunately my time came on fight week. As I flew out, I was suffering with really bad anxiety.
“When I have OCD, it doesn’t let me move on. So the whole week I didn’t care about the fight. I was just thinking about stuff I didn’t need to be thinking about and obsessing over it.”
