At 5-0, with all five fights coming in LFA, it’s reasonable to say that Christian Natividad is on the fringe of something big. A win this weekend would give him the kind of resume that gets interest for something like Dana White’s Contender Series. While he’s aware that something big is coming his way, this was not always the way for him. In fact, when he was younger, MMA wasn’t even remotely on his mind.
“Growing up, I never thought I would have ever fought MMA. Some people say – ‘I was born for this’ or ‘as soon as I came out of the womb, I was born a fighter’ – I never thought I would ever fight,” he said. “I thought I was going to be a professional skateboarder. That’s what I wanted to be when I was younger.”
That all changed for him one day thanks to his brother, UFC veteran Kevin Natividad. On his way to a training session, Kevin invited his younger btoher to come work out.
“My brother starting fighting back in 2011… one day he invited me over to the gym to do jiu jitsu, which later evolved into wrestling,” Natividad recalled.
For the moment he stepped into the gym and starting taking training seriously, Natividad not only knew that he was in love, but he knew he was destined for success.
“When I started training MMA, before my first ever amateur fight, I saw myself doing big things,” he shared. “The reason why is because the people that I trained with were at a high level… for me to be working with them, I saw myself doing big things.”
Of course, a lot of that credit goes to Kevin – without him we may have never been able to witness this run from Christian. However, it was more than just getting him to the gym and being a training partner for him.
“[Having him around] is a big part. Without my brother I would have never started fighting MMA,” he said. “He’s one of the best training partners I can get… The best thing about it, other than him being a training partner, he’s a good mentor.”
His next step towards the big show comes on Friday at LFA 196. He fights Devon Jackson on the main card, which starts at 10pm EST on UFC Fight Pass.
You can hear this entire interview below at 2:11.
