Austen Lane who use to play in the National Footbal League for teams such as Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs and Jacksonville Jaguars is now a mixed martial artist in the biggest promotion [UFC] after securing his contract with a first round TKO stoppage on Dana Whites Contender Series.
Lane (34) actually was on season 2 (now currently season 6) of DWCS in 2018 where he lost to former NFL player, former UFC fighter and now pro boxer Greg Hardy. He was told after to come back when he gets more wins. Something about that loss to Hardy did not sit well with him as he said “Greg Hardy is an athlete and I wanna prove that I am a mixed martial artist, not just an athlete“.
Since then, Lane, who was 11-3 going into this fight, has gone on to become the Fury FC heavyweight champion, has 8 first round finishes and 5 of his wins coming within 1:39 of the very first round. He also has a 100% finish rate.
Lane being the favourite at (-130) and the more notorious of the two fame wise, still had a tough fight in the heavyweight division against an undefeated kickboxer 6-0-1 out of Brazil, Richard Jacobi (+110). Jacobi who is 25, has more than 60 kickboxing bouts and was a Brazilian Judo State Champ.
The Fight
First round started off with Lane going for a leg-kick but hitting Jacobi in the groin. Giving Jacobi a chance to recover for 1:34 of the alotted 5:00 for groin strikes. Jacobi then took Lane to the ground getting in top guard but Lane was able to reverse the position.
Jacobi was getting sloppy trying to throw up submissions from the bottom, that is when Lane slipped his hands out and layed vicious ground-and-pound on him having the ref step in and waive it off.
Austen Lane, now 12-3 definitely showed why he deserves to be in the UFC amongst the best fighters after his long fought road back and that he is a true martial artist.
