UFC on FX 8's Rafael Natal used to adjusting for opponent changes

By now, Rafael Natal is used to this whole opponent switch thing.

He’s practically made a UFC career out of having the man supposed to be standing across from him get yanked, forcing him to adjust for someone new. And Saturday is another one of those fights.

Natal (15-4-1 MMA, 3-2-1 UFC) was supposed to fight Chris Camozzi (19-5 MMA, 6-2 UFC) on the main card at UFC on FX 8 in Brazil. But instead, he’ll face Joao Zeferino (13-4 MMA, 0-0 UFC) in a middleweight bout after Camozzi moved up to face Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in the co-main event.

UFC on FX 8 takes place at Arena Jaragua in Jaragua do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The event’s main card airs on FX following prelims on FUEL TV and Facebook.

“This was the third or fourth time that my opponent has changed at the last minute,” Natal recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “Every time my manager calls, I think I’m getting a new adversary. This time it was tough since the training and game planning (for Camozzi) was pretty much done. But what can we do? These things happen.”

These things happened to Natal in his second UFC fight at UFC 124, when Jason MacDonald was replaced by Jesse Bongfeldt. They happened at UFC 133 when he was supposed to face Riki Fukuda, then Constantinos Philippou, then, finally, Paul Bradley. They happened for UFC on FOX 6 when he fought Sean Spencer after Magnus Cedenblad pulled out.

When these things have happened to him in the UFC, he’s 2-0-1, with the Bongfeldt fight being scored a majority draw.

This time around, Natal lost the home-country advantage he thought he might have as a Brazilian fighting against an American in Brazil. Now he faces one of his countrymen in Zeferino, who will be making his UFC debut.

“We’re disappointed because that dynamic is gone now,” Natal said. “But these things happen in the UFC. It can’t be avoided. As far as other differences, Joao is more of a (Brazilian jiu-jitsu) guy, and Chris would have used his muay Thai primarily. So we switched the game plan a little to focus a bit more on the ground. But regardless, in the UFC, you must be ready for any facet of the game since you never really know who you’ll be facing. Today it’s Joao, tomorrow it could be yet someone else. So we remain at the ready.”

Natal will be going after his fourth win in five fights. In July 2012, he was knocked out by an Andrew Craig head kick. But he rebounded in January with a submission of Sean Spencer to keep himself off the chopping block at a time when the UFC was cutting fighters on losing streaks.

He still has regrets for the way he fought against Craig, a bout he appeared to be winning before getting stopped with just eight seconds left in the second round.

“After an easy first round, I started to lose my focus,” he said. “I kept dropping my guard, hitting him at will. The easier the fight seemed, the less focus I had. I got a bit tired, and that’s when he caught me with that head kick. I sure learned a lot. It’s not over till it’s over. I was overly confident and paid the price.

“Before that, I had been making good progress. The loss set me back, of course, and it was a great lesson.”

Natal is confident he’ll stay on the right track Saturday against Zeferino. He believes both of them being strong jiu-jitsu fighters might cancel each other out, leading to a potential standup battle.

But regardless of where the fight goes, even though he may have lost a little bit of that home-country love in not fighting an outsider, Natal said the fans still may come out the winners.

“I still count on the support of the Brazilian fans,” Natal said. “At least, since it’s two Brazilians facing each other, let’s root for this to be a great fight.”

For the latest on UFC on FX 8, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.