Austin
Hubbard is loving training closer to home for his upcoming
fight.
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Hubbard takes on Alexander
Hernandez in a lightweight matchup on the preliminary card at
UFC
307 on Saturday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Previously a member of the
Elevation Fight Team in Aurora, Colorado, Hubbard recently
shifted to the
Valle Flow Striking Academy in Bensenville, Illinois.
Hubbard had no bad blood with his previous gym, and the move was
primarily inspired by the birth of his daughter, Charlie Jo, this
past May. While Hubbard still has to drive an hour and half each
side from his home in Dixon, Illinois, “Thud” likes being closer to
his family.
“It was too hard to go out to Colorado for this camp and be gone
for seven, eight weeks. So, I’ve been home, and I’ve been training
at Valle Flow Striking in Chicago,” Hubbard told UFC.com.
“I love Elevation. They’ve been great for me and my career and
obviously they’ve contributed to a lot of my growth, as I was out
there for eight years training with them and they helped me get to
that next level of myself as a fighter. But it was definitely nice
to get a whole new group of bodies to work with and work with
everyone’s different styles, different coaching, and just a
complete almost revamp of myself and just experience all new
everything. And it has been a really nice switch. I feel like
everything they do has helped me a lot over at VFS and I’m
excited.
“It’s like a thousand miles a week of driving and it definitely
gets old, but it is nice being able to be home and help out with
the baby and everything. So I guess there’s some pros and cons to
it.”
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This is Hubbard’s second
UFC stint after he was previously released in May 2022 on the
back of a 3-4 promotional record. Hubbard went on to rack up two
wins on the regional scene, earning himself a spot on “The Ultimate
Fighter 31.” While he lost to Kurt
Holobaugh in the season finale, Hubbard earned a contract and
has since bounced back with a decision win over Michal
Figlak this past April. Relieved to be back in the UFC, Hubbard
says he was primarily fighting on the regional scene to pay off
debts rather than enjoying it.
“It’s been crazy,” Hubbard said. “Just the last two years, the
place I was coming from mentally and the hole I was in, to where
I’m at now, I didn’t think that I could get back to feeling this
good again, honestly. And I think when I was going through all
that, I really didn’t have much motivation for fighting anymore. I
was just broken down all the way around, and just with life in
general. And the only reason I was doing it is I was in so much
debt. Through trying to get back to the UFC and being in Colorado,
it was so expensive. So that was my only motivation to keep
fighting, so I can get out of debt for my family, and I really
wasn’t enjoying it all that much anymore. But I went through it all
and went through ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and did well, and now I got
back in the UFC, I’m coming off a win, and now I’m at a point in my
life where I’m really starting to feel happy again and thankful for
everything that I’ve been through because it definitely has changed
me and evolved me as a person to some degree.”
While he has never scored consecutive wins in the UFC, Hubbard is
confident he is capable of it. And to do that he can’t look past
his upcoming opponent, as he learned from his first stint.
“From everything I’ve been through, especially through my first
stint, I know I’m capable of stringing wins together, but if you
get ahead of yourself, it seems, at least in my experience, you
tend to stumble,” he said. “So I literally do not look ahead more
than what’s in front of me in my contract. And that’s Alex
Hernandez. So yeah, all the other things are in the back of my
mind, but right at the forefront right now is purely just Alex
Hernandez and really nothing else. I do believe I’m capable of
putting a streak together, climbing the rankings and all that. So
this is a step in that direction and that’s the step I need to take
first, and that’s the only thing I’m focused on.”