Austen
Lane would like nothing more than to carve out a comfortable
spot for himself in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight division.
The brick-fisted 35-year-old will step back into the Octagon when
he rematches
Justin Tafa
in a featured
UFC 293 attraction on Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
Their first encounter resulted in a no contest due to an
inadvertent eye poke a little more than two months ago. Unbeaten
across his past seven outings, Lane has not tasted defeat since he
bowed to first-round punches from
Vernon
Lewis under the
Legacy Fighting Alliance banner in March 2020. He has never
gone the distance as a pro.
As the 6-foot-6, 245-pound Lane makes final preparations for his
looming showdown with Tafa, here are five things you might not know
about him:
1. He was a force on the gridiron.
Lane starred as a defensive lineman at Murray State University in
Kentucky, where he earned first team All-America honors and was
named the Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year in
2009. More than a decade later,
he remains the school’s all-time leader in sacks (29) and tackles
for loss (53.5). Lane was drafted by Jacksonville in the fifth
round of the 2010 NFL Draft, four spots ahead of Arthur Jones—the
older brother of reigning UFC heavyweight champion
Jon Jones. He
spent parts of five seasons in the NFL with the Jaguars, Kansas
City Chiefs, Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears.
2. Fast starts were an early calling card.
The Bulldog Boxing rep made his professional mixed martial arts
debut on April 1, 2017 and did not disappoint. Lane needed just 14
seconds to bury
John
Darling with punches at a Combat Night event in Sarasota,
Florida. He went on to win his first four fights, all via
first-round finish.
3. He has proven his worth as a beast of burden.
Lane has worn gold in three different organizations. He wrecked
Tebaris
Gordon with first-round punches to capture the Warfare MMA
heavyweight championship on Sept. 12, 2020, laid claim to the
Combat Night heavyweight crown with a first-round knockout of
Rashaun
Jackson on July 24, 2021 and took out
Juan Adams
with fourth-round punches to walk away with the
Fury Fighting Championship heavyweight title on Nov. 21,
2021.
4. Failure emboldens him.
The Evanston, Illinois, native was granted to entry to the UFC
after his first-round technical knockout of
Richard
Jacobi during Season 6 of
Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022. Lane was unsuccessful in
his first appearance on DWCS, as he lasted just 57 seconds in a
blowout loss to
Greg Hardy
some four years earlier.
5. He has eggs in multiple baskets.
Lane returned to school after retiring from the NFL and graduated
from Murray State with a degree in journalism in 2017. The
university’s alumni include two Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters:
John Fetterman, of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, and
Gene Graham, of The Nashville Tennessean.