Jacinta Austin has been compared to world boxing champion Ebanie Bridges, and this Saturday in Frankfurt she challenges for the Oktagon strawweight world championship.
Austin and Bridges know each other from their time coming up in Australia, the 28-year-old explained.
Austin said: “I've known Ebanie Bridges for a long time, I knew her before she was a big superstar. We used to train together in a dingy little gym out in western Sydney together.
“The first ever boxing gym I went to - Ebanie was there. She’d just gotten started herself [in combat], she was about six months to a year ahead of me, so she was another girl there at a time when there were no other girls that I could train with and we would motivate each other.
“She was the first girl I ever got to spar with and I'm really happy about what she's done and I think that's probably why she's so supportive of me, we were kind of good friends in there for eachother before she was a big star.”
Austin will face Germany’s Katharina Dalisda at Frankfurt’s iconic FestHalle, and she hopes a win will propel her onto bigger things.
“I think I could [become a big name like Bridges],” Austin said. “Our main similarity is that we're tough guns. Aussies’ are tough - you’ve seen Ebanie fight and you’ve seen me fight - we get in people’s faces and we're happy to bleed if we can make other people bleed, and we just have a lot of heart when we fight. I think the biggest parallels between me and Ebanie is just our aggression and the heart that we bring into combat.”
“I've had some great support sent to me so far, especially after my last fight, and if I stay and fight in Europe, I could definitely become a bit of a fan favourite.
“I love it [going into the opponent’s backyard]. I feed off it. And off people's comments saying that I don't have a chance, or I'm not going to be the champion, or I'm not good enough for what Dalisda has to offer. I feed off it. I've only had one fight in my professional career where I remember being the betting favourite and I didn't like the way that made me feel as much as when I'm the underdog.”
Austin continued: “I’m very aggressive, I like to get up in people's faces and pressure them and force the fight. Wherever my opponent takes me - cage wrestling or if she's going to take me down or if we're gonna strike - I’m strong in all those positions. I have the upper hand over Dalisda in all aspects of MMA. Wherever she takes me I'm gonna have answers.
“You take that one thing they're good at, and you shut it down, and you don't allow them to use it. If they can't use it, their whole plan will fall apart. I think as soon as she can't land the striking that she'd like to land, the left hand, I think pretty quickly. She's gonna turn to wrestling.”