Rafael Natal won his third straight fight on Saturday night at UFC 187 as he scored a split decision win against Uriah Hall in a middleweight bout on the televised preliminary card.
The fight drew much more interest following Friday’s official weigh-ins when the fighters exchanged words after making weight and Hall pushed Natal.
Following his close win over Hall, Natal was asked why their was an issue between the two fighters. He explained that the issue between the two fighters has to do with Natal stopping Hall from training at Renzo Gracie’s Academy in New York.
“He grew up in New York and I am from there too. Sometimes he tries to train at the Renzo academy and I said no, he can not train there because he is not part of the team,” Natal explained during his post fight scrum. “That is for anybody. You want to train at Renzo Gracie’s, you have to be part of the team. He tried to train with one of my other coaches. My coached asked me and I said he can’t train here because we will fight in the future. If he wants to be part of the team, he can come. He is more than welcomed, but he does not want to be part of the team. He come to train for one or two days and I think that is not loyal. I have my team and I am very loyal. I do not train in other places and I think he was a little angry because I closed some doors.”
The MMA media was split on who won the fight according to MMA Decisions, but two of the three judges scoring the fight for the Nevada Athletic Commission had the fight 29-28 for Natal. He was confident that he won the fight prior to the scores being read based on what he did on the feet and the ground in the fight.
With the victory over Hall now in the books, the natural question becomes what is next for Natal. If he gets his wish, he would like to fight Michael Bisping in his next bout. Why does he want to fight Bisping? It’s due to something Bisping said in the past about him.
“I have one guy that talked bad things about me a long time ago when I lost against Tim Kennedy,” Natal stated. “He said, ‘Kennedy you didn’t beat nobody. Rafael Natal is nothing.’ That guy is Michael Bisping. I think now I am at a good level. If UFC wants, I am ready for a fight against him. I never talked bad about nobody, but he said bad things about me.”