In an industrial park in Walled Lake, smack dab between a transmission place and a carpet care service, Austin Bashi is training for the big time — his first UFC featured fight.
But he looks like he is getting ready to go to the beach.
Bashi is barefoot, wearing shorts and a dark T-shirt. He looks like an ordinary 23-year-old with a thick mop of dark, curly hair. He carries himself with an easy-going vibe and has a polite, “yes-sir,” “no-thank you” personality.
But there’s nothing ordinary about him.
Bashi, who lives in West Bloomfield with his brother and parents, takes a swig of water and steps onto the mat in the back room at Warrior Way Martial Arts, where he’s trained since he was a pudgy 8-year-old.
Bashi slaps his gloves and joins his training partner for this session: Karlo Bashi, his cousin.
Austin is working on techniques for fighting against a wall. He trains in slow motion, mimicking strikes to the head, making contact sounds to match each movement: “Pshh! Pshh! Pshh!”
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Head. Head. Body. “Pssh! Pshh! Phssh!”
Fist. Fist. Knee.
“Rotate,” says Brandon McDaniel, Austin’s long-time coach.
Now, Austin is against the wall.
He will spend eight hours in this gym today — as he does almost every day — while preparing to make his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut. Bashi will fight Christian Rodriguez (11-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) in a featherweight bout Saturday night on the UFC Fight Night 249 card from UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
“He’s a tough guy, well rounded,” Bashi says of Rodriguez. “I just remember when I was watching UFC fights on the TV — this was one of a few guys I was watching, and it just so happens here I am, couple years later, fighting him.”
A short time later, Austin moves to the main room; and he starts working with Matee Jedeepitak, Warrior Way’s Muay Thai instructor. It is a martial arts discipline that uses fists, elbows, knees and shins.
Jedeepitak straps a thick pad around his waist for protection and slips massive pads onto his hands.
“Ready, lets go!” McDaniel says.
Austin kicks into a pad five times, making a loud noise: Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
It is a blizzard of loud, violent, fierce determination.
Then, he switches and uses the other foot: five more.
It is one flurry after the next without stopping. Bashi has been training for hours, but he doesn’t appear winded. His strength is his cardio, his relentless pace in a bout. He has three wins by knockout and five by submission.
“My whole game plan is to kind of drown my opponents,” says Bashi, who has compiled a 13-0-0 record competing in other mixed martial arts leagues. “Put a crazy pace out there where in that first round, they’re starting to fade. You see a lot of guys after the first round, they’re pretty much done; and I’m just starting to get better as the rounds go on.”
Crying to fight
Austin was different from the start — and it was clear when he was 9, competing in one of his first Jiu-Jitsu fights.
“Austin and another kid both got bloody noses at the same time,” McDaniel said.
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The other kid was crying because of the bloody nose. But Austin was crying for a different reason.
“Austin was so worried that he was not going to be able to continue the match,” McDaniel said. “His drive to win the match was so off the charts. I remember thinking at that time, ‘This kid’s not normal.’”
And there’s still nothing normal about him.
“I’ve been around elite level guys — top 10 guys in the world,” said Brian Harper, who has trained MMA fighters around the country and is now a Warrior Way instructor. “Austin has every bit the possibility of becoming a world champion.
“Listen, right now, the king in his weight class, Ilia Topuria, is one of the scariest, best fighters in the history of fighting. Austin’s not there yet. But does he have the potential to be there someday? I think so.”
Because he has all the intangibles.
A polite fighter — out of the ring
There’s another thing about Austin that isn’t normal — at least, in the world of MMA fighters.
He is modest, humble and unpretentious in a world of flash, bluster and noise.
“The biggest difference between Austin and other fighters is the trend nowadays for the showmanship, the flashy dressing, wearing nail polish or gold jewelry and dyeing their hair, coming out to loud rap music,” says Angelo Popofski, who had over 20 MMA fights and is one of the main instructors at Warrior Way. “And that’s where Austin’s going to be a completely different fighter than people are used to. He’s the opposite of the mold of modern MMA fighters. There’s no flash, no nothing. He doesn’t have a nickname. He’s not gonna come out to a song. He doesn’t want any of that. He just comes out and does his work and goes home. It’s gonna be very interesting for people to see, and I think it’ll be something that a lot of people want.”
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Austin still lives at home with his parents and brother. The only time Austin starts to come close to making a bold statement is when he talks about his dislike for the flash and hype of some fighters.
“A lot of them are loudmouths, a lot of them are cocky — and I’m just not a fan of that,” Austin said. “I’ll never be like that. I never was, and never will be.
“For me, it’s all about being humble, being respectful, and at the end of the day, you know, it’s just a fight. You go out there, you fight your fight, and then after that, for me, it’s just going back to normal, being my own self.”
That attitude came directly from his parents. But it’s also a reflection of his faith.
“We’re Chaldean and really big on faith,” said Avan Bashi, his brother. “We’re Christians. We believe in Jesus Christ. And one of the big things is always being humble and never exalting ourselves, and that’s what our parents instilled in us.
“Austin is just a super hard working, super focused, and I’ll say a simple man. Family — that’s super big to us. Literally just training and family, that’s pretty much it. Austin does not do anything, doesn’t go out, doesn’t drink. He’s never even tasted a sip of alcohol in his life.”
But get him in the ring? And something flicks.
“It’s kind of like King David,” Avan said. “He just a well-mannered guy, but you know when it’s when it’s time to go to war, it’s like, it’s time.”
Bashi’s family has helped support him financially, allowing him to train full time, chasing this dream without having to get a job.
“I was blessed to have a family that literally supported me throughout,” Austin said. “Obviously that’s a big, big, big help. People usually have to get a job. But for me, my family said, ‘Just go chase your dreams.’
“This has been my only job my whole entire life.”
Ready for the big time
Austin started out competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu — a discipline that focuses on takedown techniques, controlling and neutralizing opponents’ aggressiveness.
“I’ve obviously been competing my whole life with Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling and a bunch of kickboxing fights,” he said. “I’ve had anywhere from 400 to 500 matches of grappling, and then I had eight to nine kickboxing fights. Then when I turned 18, that’s the age you have to be to do MMA.”
In high school, Bashi went out for wrestling for three years at West Bloomfield and was all-state as a junior and senior.
He had a pair of MMA bouts as an amateur, winning both; and he has won his first 12 professional fights.
His true breakthrough moment, at least on a national scene, happened with a win in Dana White’s Contender Series.
“I won that fight, and they gave me a UFC contract,” Austin says. “It was a great experience. They treat the fighters real well.”
Respect where he comes from
There is another thing that makes Austin different.
Some MMA fighters make it to UFC and then move to Vegas.
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“They tend to leave their gym and go searching for some magic formula,” Popofski said. “They go to these big gyms in Las Vegas or wherever they produce big fighters, and they hope that that’s gonna give them something. Austin has no intention of leaving, has no intention of leaving. Everything works. Why change it?”
Austin said he has no plans to leave because it would be wrong.
“That’s very disrespectful,” Austin said. “I’ll be with these guys for the rest of my life. I have everything I need at the gym. I got great coaches, I got great teammates. I know we got a great group of guys there. So I’ll be a Warrior until the day I die.”
Austin is fiercely loyal to the coaches at Warrior Way.
“Man, my coaches, they literally made me the fighter and person I am today, not just in that cage, but outside of that cage,” Bashi said. “You know, they taught me about being humble, being disciplined, having the right mindset. I can’t thank them enough.”
Thankful to a fault
Finally, there’s nothing normal about the way he acts after he trains.
After a workout, Austin walks around the room, thanking his coaches and his teammates and his sparring partners, and even a reporter, who happens to be in the room.
“Thank you,” he says.
It seems so different. For an athlete to thank a coach.
“They’re the ones that are getting us better every day,” Austin said. “I’m very thankful for all of them.”
Different.
He’s just different in all the right ways.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Is Detroit area’s Austin Bashi the next big UFC’s star?
