Undefeated finisher gets UFC debut vs. Nathaniel Wood on 5 days' notice

Nathaniel Wood has secured a short-notice replacement opponent just five days before his UFC Paris headliner. The English featherweight (23-6) was originally scheduled to face Mairon Santos on September 5 at Accor Arena in Paris, but Santos withdrew last week. The UFC quickly found a new challenger: undefeated Moldovan Pavel Andrusca (8-0), who will make his UFC debut in the bout. Andrusca brings an impressive finishing rate to the octagon—he has finished seven of his eight professional wins, including first-round knockouts in each of his last two fights under the UAE Warriors banner. Wood, meanwhile, enters the contest riding a four-fight winning streak on which he has defeated rising prospects including Morgan Charriere, Jose Delgado, and Losene Keita. The Englishman will seek his eighth straight victory since moving up to featherweight and will look to derail Andrusca's undefeated record in his UFC debut. The matchup shapes up as a classic encounter between an in-form veteran and a hungry undefeated prospect.