LONDON – “Everything and more” and “dream come true” are a few of the expressions that Nathaniel Wood can think of to describe the special feeling of walking out to the octagon at The O2 on Saturday and leaving it with a win.

“I’ve been thinking about that moment for a long time,” Wood told reporters, including MMA Junkie, backstage. “To have with my cornermen there, my crowd, and the flag, get the win. If I had lost, it would have crumbled me. So to get that win, see everyone cheering on their feet, it really was a dream come true.”

So, it’s safe to say Wood (16-3 MMA, 3-0 UFC) is excited about his second-round submission win over fellow bantamweight Jose Quinonez (7-3 MMA, 4-2 UFC) on the main card of UFC on ESPN+ 5. But the thrill of the positive outcome and the completion of a career goal still weren’t enough to silence Wood’s inner critic.

“At the moment, I’m disappointed with my performance,” Wood said. “I felt like I missed far too many shots. I felt like I should have landed that left hook so many times, and I felt sloppy. That’s how I honestly feel. But, I’ve got to obviously, I’ve got to look at the good things I did. But at the moment I’m just thinking about the bad things.

“I feel like, man, he landed far too many leg kicks than I intended. He got a takedown. At the moment, I’m just thinking about the bad stuff. I need to go back, look at the footage. I’m going to go back to the drawing board, and I’m going to come back a better fighter, for sure.”

Nothing against self-improvement, but it’s fair to say Wood has been doing quite well for himself already. At 25, the former Cage Warriors champion has finished his three fights in the octagon, all via chokes. The first one, over veteran Johnny Eduardo, earned Wood a “Performance of the Night” bonus.

Wood’s penchant for finishing fights isn’t news to anyone, but there has been a bit of an adjustment in the manner that they came about; out of the five opponents he’d finished consecutively en route to his UFC debut, four had been via knockout.

Wood, however, says he isn’t chasing the submissions. It just so happens that training under Ashleigh Grimshaw, alongside high-level grapplers, makes it easier for him to spot them. Wood also points out that his UFC foes so far have been “on the back foot,” and that the knockouts will resume once he has competition who’ll come forward.

Don’t expect that observation to lead into any specific call-outs, though. As someone who simply enjoys being in a cage, it seems Wood isn’t too concerned about who’s sharing it with him.

“This sport is everything to me, but I have a life outside of the sport, as well,” Wood said. “So, for me – it sounds so cheesy, but I just want to be happy, you know? I want to make my family, my fans proud, and do what I love to do, which is MMA. So, if tomorrow they said to me, ‘You can go in there with T.J. Dillashaw,’ I would take that shot without a doubt on the contract I am now, and I’ll be confident I’m going to win.

“But if the UFC said to me, ‘We just want you to fight someone who’s ranked 30th,’ cool. I enjoy this sport, I enjoy doing it, I’ll turn up tomorrow, I’ll bring my A-game. I’ll still be training with guys when I retire in this sport. I love competing and just want to keep enjoying it. If I can do it on the biggest platform there is in the world, then that’s everything for me.”

To hear more from Wood, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of UFC on ESPN+ 5, check out the UFC Events section of the site.