BANGOR, Maine — New England Fights MMA pushed back its “NEF XIV” mixed martial arts card a month to accommodate the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s recent appearance in the Queen City.
For Ray “All Business” Wood, the wait to get back in the cage has been much longer.
The Bucksport native based out of Young’s MMA will have his first fight in nearly 14 months Saturday night when he defends the NEF Maine state featherweight championship against Brazilian Gabriel Baino in the main event of NEF XIV at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.
Ten pro fights and 17 amateur bouts are scheduled, with the opening bell set for 6 p.m.
Wood is 4-0 as a professional, with both the high and low points of his career to date coming on the same night.
First the former three-sport athlete from Bucksport High School scored a stunning 61-second stoppage of Canadian Lenny “The Show Stealer” Wheeler at Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion on July 12, 2013, to win his first championship belt.
But while still in the cage in the immediate aftermath of that victory, he suffered what turned out to be a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, something he didn’t learn until two months later after experiencing lingering pain while training for his first title defense.
He underwent surgery Oct. 2.
“I remember it just being devastating,” said Wood. “After climbing to the top of the rankings and winning the title and then finding out I was going to have a year or so off for recovery, it was just devastating.”
Much of Wood’s rehabilitation effort focused on elements of the sport beyond restoring his physical capabilities.
“As soon as I was able to walk around and jog I started looking forward again to my career,” he said. “That time off really helped me in all aspects of the sport, not just the physical aspects of the sport but the mental aspects, which to me is more important.”
Wood also spent the winter returning to his combat sports roots as coach of the Hampden Academy and Brewer High School wrestling teams.
“Essentially wrestling is where it all started for me,” said Wood, a 2009 Bucksport graduate who was a three-time Eastern Maine champion and two-time state runner-up during his high school wrestling career.
“Why I started with MMA was because of wrestling, and coaching helped me out mentally and sharpened my skills. I wasn’t physically able to do a lot of things at the time, but when you’re teaching something you’re constantly working at it mentally.”
Now comes Wood’s long-awaited return, and it’s by no means a tune-up.
Baino (6-1) trains with the highly regarded Massachusetts-based Team Link with such teammates as current NEF state welterweight champion Gil de Freitas.
Five of Baino’s victories have come by stoppages, and his lone defeat was a unanimous decision in June 2013 to 14-2 Calvin Kattar, ranked second among New England featherweights.
Wood said he could have eased back into competition with a non-title fight against a lesser opponent but decided against that option.
“I’m in this for the long run, I want to make a career out of this, and going in and fighting a so-called tomato can, that’s not what works for me,” he said. “I want to go out there and put on good performances against quality opponents.
“When I make it to the next level I want to be ready. I don’t want to go through my regional pro career just fighting people I know I can beat. I want a test, I want a challenge, so this is why I took this fight.”
Thoughts of the next level are never far from Wood’s mind, and were reinforced last month when the UFC staged its first Maine show at the Cross Insurance Center thanks to company president Dana White’s personal ties to the Bangor area.
“Seeing the show live put it in a whole different perspective,” Wood said. “Seeing it firsthand, it’s really no different than what I’ve been doing. Those guys aren’t as big as they look on TV, they’re no more elaborate, it’s the same exact stuff I’ve been doing. I look at some of the guys’ records who were out there, and one of them was 4-1 and making his UFC debut.
“It’s not a longshot for me whatsoever. Having Dana White in my backyard and the fact that maybe he has heard my name … with a few more fights if I keep going down this same road rattling off wins, putting on finishes, taking tough fights, I don’t think they’ll have a choice but to take me.”
