5 Things You Might Not Know About Natan Schulte
Two-time
Professional Fighters League lightweight champion Natan
Schulte will set out on his quest for a third $1 million payday
when he faces Steven Ray as
part of the
PFL 3 undercard on Friday inside The Theater at Virgin Hotels
in Las Vegas. The Brazilian won PFL tournaments at 155 pounds in
2018 and 2019.
The 31-year-old Schulte enters his 2023 campaign on the strength of
back-to-back wins. He last appeared at the 2022 PFL Championships,
where he subdued Jeremy
Stephens with an arm-triangle choke in the second round of
their Nov. 25 pairing. Schulte owns a 12-2-1 record across his 15
assignments in the PFL, having lost only to Olivier
Aubin-Mercier and Marcin
Held.
As Schulte makes final preparations in advance of his forthcoming
battle with Ray, here are five things you might not know about
him:
1. He survived a baptism by fire.
Schulte made his professional mixed martial arts debut at the age
of 19 when he put away Piero
Severo with a front kick and follow-up punches in the second
round of their Dec. 12, 2011 encounter in the Monster Black Combat
banner. He went on to suffer back-to-back defeats to Yuri Maia and
Pedro
Gostinski Jr. before he rebounded and emerged as one of the top
prospects in Brazil.
2. Tournament competition has long been a forte.
“Russo” won an eight-man lightweight grand prix in the Xtreme
Fighting Championships International promotion in 2014. Schulte cut
down Geovanny
Arroyo with third-round punches in the quarterfinals, punched
out Gilson
Lomanto a little more than four minutes into their semifinal
showdown and laid claim to a unanimous decision over Glaucio
Eliziario in the final.
3. Not many have walked in his shoes.
Schulte remains one of only four fighters to win multiple
Professional Fighters League championships. Featherweight Lance
Palmer, welterweight Ray Cooper
III and women’s lightweight Kayla
Harrison are the others. Harrison was denied her bid for a
third title at 155 pounds in November, when she was upset by
Larissa
Pacheco at the 2022 PFL Championships.
4. He shines brightest in the grappling phase.
The Joinville, Brazil, native holds the rank of black belt in
Brazilian jiu-jitsu and puts those skills to use quite often. Ten
of Schulte’s 23 career victories have resulted in submission,
including rear-naked choke finishes of Igor
Egorov, Jason High,
Yincang
Bao and Ramsey
Nijem.
5. World-class training fuels his success.
Schulte dropped anchor at
American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, where esteemed
coaches like Marcos da
Matta, Marcus
“Conan” Silveira, Vitelmo
Kubis Bandeira, Steve Mocco
and Mike Thomas
Brown mentor him on a regular basis. Other top-shelf
lightweights at the school include Dustin
Poirier, Mateusz
Gamrot and Grant
Dawson.