Dominique “The Black Panther” Wooding: Top 5 MMA Finishes

Dominique Wooding is one of the hottest prospects on the UK MMA scene currently. Fighting out of London, “The Black Panther” is the current Cage Warriors Bantamweight Champion.

The 25 year-old has one of the most spectacular finishing resumes, with all his wins on his 9-4 record coming by way of knockout, and as you’ll see on this list there are plenty of flying knees to go round!

Wooding has had a rollercoaster of a career, he rose to prominence mostly in the now defunct UK promotion BAMMA, leading to him signing with Bellator where many expected him to take off.

However, Wooding went 1-2 in the promotion before being cut. Something had to change, and change things did, he made the switch to GB Top Team and signed with Cage Warriors, and has looked unstoppable ever since.

Three fights and three wins, in six months, for the promotion with his second one being for the title against team Next Generation MMA product, and training partner of Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett, Nathan Fletcher.

Since then, he has defended his title once, in December 2021 against Carlos Abreu, and in true Wooding style, he finished the fight in just 38 seconds.

He currently doesn’t have a fight scheduled and the next time he is on a card don’t be surprised if it’s in the UFC.

It’s been a real hard task to cut down Wooding’s finishes to just a top five, as every one of his bouts deserves a spot, but here we go anyway with Dominique Wooding’s Top 5 MMA Finishes! (in descending order)

5. Vs. Dominic Dillon – BAMMA 34 (March 9, 2018)

This marked Wooding’s third and final fight in BAMMA and he finished it off with a bang!

Dillon, a great jiu-jitsu fighter, tried to do what is advised against Wooding, pursuing takedowns throughout the bout, but all were stuffed with ease.

The fight could have been ended by both in the first round when Wooding dropped Dillon with 30 seconds left on the clock. The southpaw landed a straight left that dropped his opponent, but Dillon was tough and reserved under pressure.

Wooding pursued him to the canvas, but Dillon went to turtle and locked up a kimura, allowing him to execute a perfect butterfly sweep, with the bell ringing as soon as Wooding’s back hit the mat, thus not allowing him to take advantage.

This seemed to light a fire under Wooding, he battered Dillion relentlessly in the second round before landing a flying knee, following up with strikes on the ground, leading to referee Marc Goddard stepping in at 0:55, giving Wooding the TKO victory.

4. Vs. Iuri Bejenari – Warrior Fight Series 5 (Feb. 13, 2016)

At the age of 19 in his second professional fight, this one at flyweight, Wooding only needed 92 seconds to take Bejenari’s undefeated 2-0 record…and his consciousness.

Wooding dropped his man with a straight left before leaving the Frenchman flat on the canvas with a right knee.

3. Vs. Carlos Abreu – Cage Warriors 132 (Dec. 11, 2021)

As mentioned above, this was Wooding’s first defense of his Cage Warriors Bantamweight title. Carlos ‘Crocodilo’ had a 9-3 record going into the fight and a very dangerous submission game, but the Brazilian didn’t get a chance to show any of that.

Abreu came out aggressively, swinging hard, which played right into Wooding’s hands, throwing a big left hook, but Wooding masterfully pulled out of the way and caught him with a check hook on the ear dropping the 29 year-old.

As he clambered his way back up against the fence, Wooding timed a jumping knee, knocking his opponent out flat in just 38 seconds of the first round.

2. Vs. Cameron Hardy – Cage Warriors 124 (June 25, 2021)

This was both men’s Cage Warriors debut, and Wooding wanted to make a point as he was frustratingly placed on the prelims, in York Hall, London.

Wooding said: “Being on the prelims in my own hometown and coming out first like I’m the away fighter in my own hometown pi**ed me off.”

He used that anger well, producing another highlight reel knockout.

Wooding looked incredibly fast and light on his feet in the opening minute of the fight, before dropping Hardy with a left head kick.

As soon as Hardy returned to his feet, Wooding sat him down again with a straight left. It must have been like déjà vu for Hardy as he got up once again only to be finally finished off with a right hook.

1. Vs. Nathan Fletcher – Cage Warriors 127 (Sept. 30, 2021)

This one was for the vacant Cage Warriors bantamweight championship, after former UK title holder, Jack Cartwright left the promotion.

As stated in the introduction to this piece, Fletcher was one of the hottest prospects in the UK at the time of this bout, and still is. He held a perfect 6-0 record, all by way of finish.

The 24 year-old is often compared to his teammate Paddy Pimblett, with his excellent submission skills. This fight was a testament to Wooding’s composure as he was decisively losing the fight before ending it spectacularly.

There was also animosity coming into this fight and a lot of back and forth between the two, with the fire also being stoked, characteristically, by Pimblett.

It took just over a minute of the first round for Fletcher to get his takedown, but Wooding used his butterfly guard to great effect, as he did all night, to return to standing.

However, Fletcher kept him against the fence with a body lock, which allowed him to trip Wooding and get to his back, where he remained for the rest of the round landing punishing strikes.

Right out of the gate in round two, Fletcher pressured Wooding against the fence and shot in on a double leg, but it was defended well, and Wooding managed to capitalize when Fletcher lost his balance going for a takedown, landing on the bottom with “The Black Panther” in his butterfly guard.

Wooding allowed him to stand back up, but Fletcher went right back to his takedowns, grinding Wooding against the fence, but he began to look weary with the high output effort to get him down.

When the two got to start round three, they couldn’t have had different physiologies; Wooding looked calm and collected, whereas Fletcher was breathing hard, with a thousand-yard stare.

Fletcher started shooting from far out with no setup, allowing for easy sprawls in defense, yet at 2:10 in, Fletcher got his takedown, but this time Wooding got up with little effort, in under a minute.

Wooding started to have his moments on the feet when, with just a minute to go, Fletcher shot for a double but ended up on the end of a patented Wooding flying knee.

Wooding landed lethal and unrelenting strikes to the side of his opponent’s head as he tried to complete the takedown, eventually pushing his opponent off before finishing him with a knee up the middle, to left high kick, flying knee, and a final left hook to secure the title.

As you can tell from this list, Wooding is one of the most exciting bantamweights around on the scene, and with his recent run in Cage Warriors it’s only a matter of time before we see him in the UFC…so stay tuned!

So there we have it folks, 5 of Dominique Wooding’s best MMA finishes!

Now on a stunningly convincing 3-win streak, with no signs of slowing down, it’s just a matter of time before Dominique is signed up with the big leagues in the UFC. Looking ahead, who would be his dream matchups there? What’s your favorite “Black Panther” fight from the list above?

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