Jacinta Austin is looking for redemption this weekend.
Australia’s Austin (2-0) returns to action for the first time in 2022 this weekend at Eternal MMA 64. The former kickboxer and Muay Thai fighter made her professional MMA debut last year and won both of her fights. She defeated Lisa Kyriacou via unanimous decision in her second pro fight, making her debut under the Eternal MMA banner.
She makes her second appearance for Eternal MMA this weekend. Austin faces Alish Smith, someone she has a history with. In 2019, Austin lost her only amateur MMA fight to Smith.
The 27-year old wasn’t too bothered by the loss, as she didn’t really expect to win.
“At that point, like four years ago, I was never thinking I was gonna do MMA. It’s not something I wanted or was trying to be like the best at. I was actually over in New Zealand for a kickboxing tournament. And Alish, her opponent, had pulled out last minute, and since I was there, I just did it. I just jumped in,” Austin told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview. “I take all losses very seriously. But also, I was never there to win; it wasn’t my fight to win. I had to fight a couple of hours after that too. So, I kind of just had to shake it off and let it go because I had a K-1 championship fight two hours later.”
“I had to let it go,” Austin continued. “And I always like looked back on it and thought how cool it would have been if the striker that had never done MMA had won. And I was forever disappointed that I wasn’t that person on the day. Um, but you know, I wasn’t there to be the winner of that fight, but I am this time.”
Now that Austin has been training MMA since her loss, she gets to redeem herself in the rematch.
“I’m very excited for it. I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to redeem that fight. When we fought, I had done not a single day of grappling. I didn’t even know what an underhook was. You know, I didn’t know what a hip escape was. I was just just a kickboxer, and I’ve been training MMA solidly for two years now,” Austin said. “I think this fight is gonna go very, very differently.”
“I’m trying not to get too overwhelmed with the feelings of retribution and revenge. I’m trying to stay calm. But I am very excited because Alish is only one of three girls in every discipline I fought that has beaten me. So I’m very excited to like redeem that loss and show what I can do with an actual MMA camp with an actual MMA coach.”
Watch the rest of our interview with Jacinta Austin above. Austin vs. Smith goes down at Eternal MMA 64 this Saturday exclusively on UFC Fight Pass.
