Undefeated Natalie Salcedo explains unusual journey through MMA ahead of upcoming ONE Fight Night 35 debut

Val Dewar

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Each prospect in mixed martial arts treks a different path on their way to the top.

With no academy or collegiate farm system for the sport, elite fighters come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and they all had to start somewhere.

Natalie Salcedo certainly did not walk a typical path, but training Muay Thai as a hobbyist and being bullied into becoming a No-Gi BJJ champion is perhaps a path more athletes should look into.

"I started in jitsu about 10 years ago and — kind of funny story — I had no idea what jiu-jitsu was. I had trained a little bit of Muay Thai when I was younger... I had no idea what that really was either, someone just invited me to go to class with them one of my friends who also trained. Anyways I started doing jiu-jitsu because I started going to a new gym for Muay Thai classes and the gym was pretty small, everybody was very tight...everybody that would do the muay Thai classes would also do the jiu-jitsu and eventually I just started getting trolled into doing jiu-jitsu.

"They're like, 'Well you're coming for Muay Thai,' you need to come for this too.'

"I’m like, 'No I don't really want to, I don't really know anything about that.'

"I hated jiu-jitsu, I hated it when I first started, it was just so awkward because I was so used to being on my feet and doing like very different movement patterns and...yeah I just kept getting made fun of for not training and then eventually I just kept training and now I love it!"

She added, "Kind of funny now too because I’m like a little bit of the opposite, where I love training Muay Thai but I like I really enjoy training jiu-jitsu, sometimes I have to force myself to do a little bit of Muay Thai because I’d rather just be grappling."

It's certainly paying off; Natalie's 3-0 pro MMA record is mostly a credit her grappling skills. Perhaps more impressively, she also won the IBJJF World No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu Championship in 2023, at the brown belt level.

Salcedo wants to put that pedigree to use as fast as possible in ONE Championship, and think she matches up well with every athlete in the atomweight division, including champ Denice Zamboanga.

"I'm hoping I can do it as fast as possible, that I can prove myself to ONE as being a top five prospect... I think I'd match up well; so I live in Colorado Springs, and this is Olympic City. A lot of my teammates are really, really good wrestlers. I trained over at Betterman Elite quite a bit, and they run one of the best wrestling programs in the country for kids, high school kids. They have a lot of people from the World Team that come through there as well; Deanna Betterman, Joe Betterman, really great wrestlers.

"I feel like I have a lot of experience going against those high level wrestlers like the Japanese girls [Hirata and Miura]. Denise, I think is a little bit more of a rounded fighter compared to some of those other girls. But I think in some ways that's even better for me, right? Because I don't have to hyper focus on one thing to prepare for. I could just go out there and be the better fighter. So yeah, I think honestly any of those matchups are ones that I'd be willing to take at any time. And then I also think that they're going to be really entertaining fights as well."

The matchup in front of her should be interesting as well; Salcedo is preparing to take on Argentinian prospect Macarena Aragon, who entered ONE with the same record Natalie herself holds today: 3-0.

I asked Natalie if she felt, given her confidence against the elite of the division, she feels like she will be able to dominate Aragon.

"Yeah, honestly, I think so. I mean, I don't think that she's like a bum by any means. You know, actually, its a little bit one of my pet peeves when fighters talk down on their opponent. It's like, why are you fighting [them]? I think she's a great opponent. I think she has good jiu-jitsu, but I think in the end, I'm just more experienced there. I've competed a ton in jiu-jitsu, and so I'm really comfortable in the scramble. I'm really comfortable on top. And I think that I'm going to be able to out-position her and out-class her there."

Her confidence is well-founded. In Salcedo's last outing before signing with ONE, she won the PFC strawweight title with what I am calling a triangle-Americana.

"I think it was honestly the right sub at the right time. You know, I was in the triangle, she was doing a good job defending, so I'm like, 'I have this arm.'

"And so I think that is, again, something that makes me pretty dangerous, that I'll find subs almost anywhere. You know, I don't have like one thing that like if I if I get here, I can finish, and this is this is the only thing I look for. You know, I have so many different places that I can finish the fight from."

She is looking to dominate in a similar way on Friday at ONE Fight Night 35, but Natalie seemed to want the fight to last longer than he last two outings, when I asked for her prediction.

"We [have to] at least get to the second round, because I want to fight a little bit! Actually, it's kind of funny, when I was fighting Stephanie Hernandez, when I got to that triangle there was actually a split moment that I was like, 'Do I want to finish this, or do I just want to keep fighting?" And then I'm like, 'No, that's stupid.'"

The aggressive style and killer instinct Salcedo has shown in her fights may just make a longer bout impossible, but that's all the more reason to keep an eye on her.

To hear more about Natalie's full journey ahead of her ONE Championship debut on Friday, watch the full interview here.

Natalie Salcedo takes on Macarena Aragon at ONE Fight Night 35 on Friday, September 5th, 2025, live on Amazon Prime Video from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Val Dewar

Val was initiated into Steelers Nation from the moment he was born — his first memory is a game vs. New England from when "Slash" was QB — and doing sports writing has always been a dream career for him. In 2022 he broke into the industry by writing about combat sports for Cageside Press, and now has the opportunity to continue that work with TSN as an MMA writer, as well as get his feet wet on the Steelers beat.