NEW PALESTINE — He bobbed and weaved, striking his partner’s training pads with a hawk-like focus.
Austin Tweedy’s fists are lightning, faster than any other kickboxer that trains in his Pendleton-based gym. But to the perfectionist MMA champ, he never feels fast enough.
With a slight frown, the New Palestine-based fighter focused and leveled his stance, repeating the combination. Jab, hook, slip, cross, low round house kick. The flurry of punches and kicks land on target in rapid succession.
The timer hits zero, and Tweedy stops for a break. Striking class is over, but there’s little time to rest: He’s got a Brazillian Jiu-jitsu class in five minutes.
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The mixed martial artist’s discipline and dexterity is the result of constant training six to seven days a week for nine years, said Tweedy’s coach, Myron Gerber. With a 10-1 professional record, Tweedy’s training has paid off; the Hancock County local has been selected to compete in Dana White’s contender series in Las Vegas June 26. The fight — slated at 155 lbs against the MMA Lab’s Te Edwards — could potentially lead to Tweedy’s UFC debut.
The 2009 New Palestine graduate had his first professional fight in 2014, and he has been improving his combat sports resume ever since. His fighting style was built off a foundation forged by folkstyle wrestling, but Tweedy has added a myriad of other combative skills to his repertoire. Years of study in judo, pankration tae-kwon-do and more have made him comfortable fighting at every distance and against any opponent, he said.
Tweedy started training with Gerber shortly after he began his amateur career, back when he was taking whatever fights he could get, without regard to sanctions or weight class. Tweedy’s first amateur bout back in 2009 took place in a barn in Greenfield, right off of U.S. 40 and 400 E.
After the Pendleton-based MMA coach got word of an up-and-comer with real potential, Gerber took Tweedy under his wing.
"He’s been one of my top players ever since," Gerber said. "Now he’s the superstar here. He’s hungry. He just loves to learn, you feed him and he’s just going to eat it up.
"I have to yell at him to take rest days," he said. "And his rest days still aren’t my kind of rest days."
Of Tweedy’s 10 wins, nine have occurred via submission and one via knockout.
"We try to get them to stand up with him, but they always end up on the ground, tapping," said Gerber with a laugh.
Tweedy has logged wins against UFC veteran Jason Gilliam, as well as “Ultimate Fighter” veteran Daniel Head. Tweedy finished Head, a three-stripe jiu-jitsu brown belt, with a triangle choke in the first round, showcasing a ground game that might earn him nods from some of the UFC’s top grapplers.
Tweedy ended his most recent fight against Jay Ellis at ECC: Spring Submissions last April, where he submitted the MMA veteran 23 seconds into the first round.
Tweedy represents American Top Team Indianapolis, and he also trains at Iron Horse Martial Arts in Pendleton. To the other students who step onto the mat, Tweedy is one part training partner and one part mentor, they said. He’s constantly soaking up knowledge and sharing it with everyone who seeks to learn.
Tweedy is the kind of fellow student that makes you feel good, who motivates you to learn something new every day, said his sparring partner Shawn Johnson. Whether it’s kickboxing or jiu-jitsu, students want to be better at fighting whenever Tweedy is around, Johnson said.
Tweedy isn’t just a good fighter; he’s a scientist, Johnson said. If you can roll with him, you can roll with anybody, he added.
"When you’re rolling with him, you’ve got to really be about it, and you can’t let your guard down," Johnson said. "We’ll call him ‘The Flash,’ in here. He’ll come straight out of your field of vision. He’s crazy, man."
Edwards, Tweedy’s next opponent, is a 5-1 fighter in Mixed Martial Arts, emerging from his background as an NCAA wrestler for Arizona State University. Edwards has scored four knockouts in his professional career, showing impressive striking capabilities for a wrestler. But Tweedy simply isn’t worried.
Tweedy has more MMA experience than him and will have no problem matching him in grappling, he said. In addition to his dual brown belts in judo and jiu-jitsu, Tweedy has trained with some of the MMA world’s top-of-the-line wrestlers, to include IU’s Kurt Kinser and Olympian Ben Askren.
"If (Edwards) wants to go to the ground, great," Tweedy said. "If he wants to stand up, I’ll beat him anywhere this fight goes."
Tweedy’s bold prediction isn’t one of blind arrogance, he said. Tweedy is cautious of underestimating any opponent, saying his confidence was founded upon learning from his weaknesses every day.
Martial arts gifted Tweedy with a discipline that kept him out of trouble all through his youth, he said. Now he considers that discipline his greatest asset in his professional fighting career.
"I don’t care how much a beast you are to all your friends and how good of a wrestler you were in high school, you will get humbled if you go to the right gym," Tweedy said. "And that’s good. You want to be getting submitted every day, then coming back, learning and fixing that.
"You’ve got to learn to be humble," he said.
