Breaking free: New Pal fighter bounces back from tough Vegas loss

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GREENFIELD — The overhand right caught him on the chin a millisecond before he was ready for it. 

Austin Tweedy vaguely remembers the punch connecting to his jaw and the impact from toppling to the floor of the cage. He remembers watching his opponent, Te Edwards, flaunt to the crowd and the cameras capturing the action, broadcasting the first-round knockout to the MMA world.

Tweedy remembers slowly sitting up while his coach and the ringside doctors rushed to his aid. But that’s mostly all he remembers, he said. Everything else is a little hazy.

Getting knocked unconscious will do that to you, of course, Tweedy said. He knew that; all serious fighters know it. Any genuine fan of the sport understands that even the greatest warriors the sport has ever seen are not immune to getting KO’d in the blink of an eye.

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Yes, anyone can get caught and suddenly watch the lights go out. But in Tweedy’s six-year MMA career — with a professional record of 10-1 — the New Palestine native never experienced the pleasure of getting knocked out for himself.

All but one of his previous fights had ended in a swift first-round submission or knockout. But his Vegas Contender Series bout in June marked the first time where Tweedy had been on the receiving end of such punishment.

Austin "The Flash" Tweedy, Hancock County’s most prominent mixed martial artist, went to Las Vegas in June to compete in Dana White’s Contender Series, a UFC Fight Pass original series featuring a televised tournament where the world’s most talented fighters face off to show off their skills to the president of the UFC.

The most impressive prospects are awarded with a grand prize: a  contract with the largest mixed martial arts organization in the world.

Edwards, who was Tweedy’s opponent on fight night, is a now 6-1 professional fighter and a two-time NCAA Qualifier in wrestling for Arizona State University and Old Dominion. Edwards knocked out Tweedy 28 seconds into the first round. 

And the defeat shook him a little, Tweedy said. But that just made him want to train harder.

Frustrated that he wasn’t given a chance to showcase his abilities to the UFC’s president, Tweedy forced himself not to fade away. He never wavered, never skipped a workout and made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t let the anxiety, the pre-fight jitters, ever take control again. 

Tweedy would have his chance at redemption on Sept. 8 in a K1 bout against Blayze Rodgers, a Terre-Haute based kickboxer with a professional record of 6-1. Tweedy’s coach, Myron Gerber of Iron Horse Martial Arts, organized the tournament, making a deal to have Adaggios Banquet Hall serve as the venue, a spot right near the fighter’s hometown. 

Gerber said signing Tweedy up for a kickboxing match close to home was a good way to keep him active and work on his stand-up game against an opponent who would push him. The bout was to be K1 kickboxing rules, as opposed to MMA rules, which allow elbow strikes and ground grappling. While clinch fighting, knees to the head and sweeps are allowed; wrestling takedowns, chokes, locks and other ground submissions are not. 

With a folkstyle wrestling background, Tweedy is a skilled grappler, holding  brown belts in both Judo and Brazillian Jiujitsu. A quick look at his track record shows that he’s something of a submission specialist in the octagon.

But under K1 rules, Tweedy would be forced to utilize striking skills only, Gerber said. This was a chance to show the crowds that he’s got more than takedowns and chokes in his repertoire; Tweedy has the ability to stand up and swing as well, he said.

Keeping Tweedy in Hancock County for the next time he stepped into a ring was key, too, Gerber said. 

"His hometown supports him so much," Gerber said. "He has so many people here in Greenfield and New Pal that love and support him." 

But to Tweedy, the fight against Rodgers was more than participating in a little hometown tournament to keep his friends and family entertained. It was also a chance to break free of the negative emotions connected to his loss in Vegas; a chance to show the best of the best in MMA that he was still a force to be reckoned with.

Made for this

Tweedy’s fiancé, Brittany Erwin, started dating him six years ago, so she’s been present at each of his professional fights. And she still can’t shake the nerves every time he steps into a cage or a ring, she said. 

The anxiety is the worst when she sees him get hurt, she said. Erwin recalls one fight a few years ago when Tweedy’s nose was broken in the middle of the second round. But the New Pal champ just blinked through the tears and kept on swinging. 

"He just doesn’t stop," Erwin said. "He’s taking so much damage, and I know he won’t ever quit on anything like that. Watching it happen is always hard."

"I get so nervous I actually hyperventilate most of the time," Erwin added with an anxious laugh. "I hyperventilate and I panic. Even when there’s blood pouring down his face, he just doesn’t stop." 

It was a major disappointment to make it to a high-profile stage in front of Dana White, yet not showcase for the UFC president the mobility and technique her fiancé is capable of, Erwin said. 

More than that, Tweedy has more than just his fighting skills to offer to the organization, Erwin added. 

"He’s so good at talking to people, and he’s so friendly, down-to-earth and modest," Erwin said. "And I feel like that’s what the sport is missing out on in a sense. Right now it’s all about tough talk and promoting, and sportsmanship takes a backseat. Not with him."

"At the end of the day, these guys hug each other at the end of it," she continued. "I understand there’s a competitive nature involved, and that you go in there with the mindset that you’re going to kill somebody. But this is really no different from a sport like football or basketball. Austin understands that."

There’s often a stigma attached to combat sports, along with a stereotype that fighters are over competitive or have aggression issues, Erwin said. But Tweedy is different; his humble and mild-mannered personality is a stark contrast to the fury he displays when he puts the gloves on, she said.

Like any other professional athlete, he’s learned to channel all the negative energy in his life and leave it in the ring. That’s why the stand-up fight against Rodgers is something that needed to happen for her fiancé, she said.

Other fighters have bounced up from worse circumstances. He’s not the first or last to fight for a comeback like this.

"Normal people don’t do this sport," Erwin said. "But see, he’s a totally functional person in his daily life. He needs this. It satisfies his soul, and he’s made for it. And he will capitalize when the time comes."

The fight

With 15 amateur bouts on the undercard, Sept. 8th turned out to be a long night of fighting. The hundreds of spectators were left waiting for nearly four hours before Tweedy and Rodgers’s pro match, the main event of the evening. 

Europe’s “The Final Countdown” — Tweedy’s entrance song for the fight —blasted through loudspeakers set up across the room as Tweedy approached the ring for the first time since Vegas. He shook the nerves from his body as he loosened up while the ring announcer called out the tale of the tape.

Both fighters weighed in on target for the 170-pound event, with Rodgers 170 even and Tweedy just one pound under. Rodgers, who stands at 5-foot-11-inches, had a slight height and reach advantage to Tweedy, who stands at 5’8". The combatants touched gloves and went to their corners. 

Tweedy loosened up. This was redemption.

Tweedy didn’t waste time getting to work as the first bell rang. The Flash caught Rodgers with a quick jab cross combo, immediately following up with a leg sweep that put his opponent on the floor. Rodgers popped back up to his feet and threw two quick shots that connected with Tweedy’s chin, but the New Pal champion ate them like a snack.

Tweedy bull-rushed Rodgers into a clinch, following up with two knees to the head. Dazed, Rodgers ripped himself free of his grasp, but the Flash swung up a roundhouse kick to his belly the instant they broke contact, doubling Rodgers over and putting him down for the second time in 30 seconds.

The referee OK’d Rodgers to keep fighting as he stood back up. The Terre Haute fighter approached cautiously, trying to keep up with his opponent’s lightning pace, but Tweedy pummeled him with a flurry of strikes. A round kick to his head, connecting like a baseball bat. A left hook to the liver. Yet another leg sweep, which sent Rodgers crumpling for a third time in the first round.

The referee still didn’t call a TKO at the third knockdown, so Rodgers stumbled back to his feet, desperate to keep fighting. Tweedy was all over him again. Setting Rodgers up with a few faints and jabs, Tweedy finally extinguished any fight his opponent had left in him by delivering a front kick to Rodgers’ solar plexus, booting him to the mat like a Spartan.

Tweedy chalked up another first-round knockout to his fight dossier, ending the fight with just 10 seconds left in the first round. Calling the match, the referee called both fighters to the center of the ring and raised Austin Tweedy’s gloved fist into the air.

The crowd exploded.

Tweedy’s teammates rushed the ring, climbed through the ropes and bear hugged him.

Tweedy made his way through the room with a smile plastered on his face as friends and family stood in line to get their picture taken with him. With Rodgers’ impressive fighting résumé, few people predicted such a mismatch, which added to the drama of the night’s sole professional bout.

Sweat dripped from Tweedy’s forehead as he unwrapped his hands as the crowd began to clear out. He’d just dismantled a storied professional stand-up fighter in his first bout since his knockout loss to Edwards in June. As he looked back at the ring, his thoughts drifted back toward the suffering and pain in that moment in June, comparing it to how he felt now. 

“It feels great to get all that ugliness out of my head,” Tweedy said. “I broke free of all that. I knew I was better than I was out there, and tonight I came out here and showed everybody that I’ve got a little stand-up game.”

He shook his head and smiled.

“As long as I’m healthy, I’m good to go,” he said. “It’s time for us to start looking for another MMA fight. All that’s left to do from here is keep on winning.”