Nathaniel Wood ready to accept Marlon Vera fight ‘right now’ following Twitter back and forth

Marlon Vera scored a fantastic second-round TKO to get himself back in the win column againstWuliji Buren at UFC 227, and after the fight he turned his attention to Nathaniel Wood, a man who he has recently traded barbs with on Twitter.

Shortly after his signing to the UFC, Wood made an appearance on The MMA Hour. In what appeared to be a tongue-in-cheek proposal, the former Cage Warriors champion called for fights with everyone who had beaten his mentor, Brad Pickett, in the Octagon. Vera’s name was top of his list of ideal counterparts.

According to Wood, Vera was the only fighter who took exception to his and Pickett’s goading. “The Prospect” felt as though Vera made some disrespectful comments about Pickett during their social media exchanges, and following the Ecuadorian’s big win on Saturday, he’s adamant that he would accept a fight with Vera “right now” if UFC made him an offer.

“[Vera] was talking rubbish, to be honest with you,” Wood told MMA Fighting.

“Brad and I were having a bit of fun and we thought it would be a good idea for me to call out all the guys that he lost to in the UFC. Marlon was the only one to reply, but after a few tweets back and forth he started putting some stuff up that was a bit odd.

“He was saying stuff like, ‘Go suck Brad’s d*ck’ and that sort of thing. I thought it was massively disrespectful given that those two had previously fought. I’m ready to accept that fight right now, but I have not been offered that fight yet.”

Vera has previously suggested that he had signed to fight Wood, but the Londoner claims that he has never received an offer for that bout.

“About a week after we had our first exchange on Twitter, he tweeted saying that he had signed the contract and that I had better answer my phone that day. I told him that the phone was in my hand and that he shouldn’t keep me waiting, but nothing ever happened. I think he was just acting up for Twitter,” said Wood.

Wood remarked that he is even more excited about fighting Vera now that he has got himself back into the win column.

“I’m glad he won his fight. If he didn’t, then I wouldn’t be interested in fighting him. It’s a good time to make this happen now, so let’s do it. I’d like to think that ‘Chito’ would want to stand with me, but if he didn’t I could always submit him. But hopefully, if we get the fight made, he will want to stand and I’ll be more than happy to meet him in the middle. I’m adamant that I would knock him out in the first round.”

Wood believes his sophomore Octagon outing could happen in October or November. And even though he’s enjoying a break from the hectic schedule he had on his ascent to the big show, he insists that he has told his managers to push to make the Vera fight happen.

“There’s no fight in the UFC I’d turn down. I mostly leave that side of things to my manager, but I made sure to tell them I want to fight ‘Chito’ and shut his mouth for talking all that sh*t. We talked about it as soon as the Twitter beef started and I told him straight up to put his name forward because it would be a great fight for me.”