Rafael “Sapo” Natal will fight Special Forces warrior Tim Kennedy in front of many of Kennedy’s fellow soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky., on Nov. 6. (USA Today Sports photo by Jason Silva)
The third in our series of Tim Kennedy posts will be the shortest: The soldier-grappler was to fight former 205-pound UFC champ Lyoto Machida in the main event of “UFC Fight Night 31: UFC Fight for the Troops 3” at Fort Campbell, Ky., on Nov. 6. Then an injury to another fighter shuffled the UFC’s schedule, and Kennedy was left without an opponent.
That triggered a series of Tweets from Kennedy that called out a good chunk of the UFC’s 185-pound division. Eventually, matchmakers selected Rafael “Sapo” Natal, according to our good friends at MMAJunkie.com — who’d been ID’d previously as part of the Twitter barrage.
Natal, 17-4-1, is 3-0 in 2013. His last loss came in July 2012, via knockout to Andrew “Highlight” Craig on a FUEL TV card.
Kennedy’s opening trash-talk salvo was, as usual, less than traditional: “I love that I’m fighting a guy with beautiful bronze skin,” he told MMAjunkie.com. “He looks dashing regardless of what he’s wearing. Because of that I hate him. I will have to destroy a beautiful thing.”
