Austin Hubbard Finally Feels Like He Belongs

“I love Elevation,” said Hubbard. “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.”

That must be a perfect fit if he’s still excited after driving three hours every day.

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“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,” he said. “So I guess there's some pros and cons to it.”

Well, he does get to dodge diaper duty for a little bit. But even when he does have to be on call, he’s loving it.

“Oh man, it definitely is work, but it is awesome,” said Hubbard. “She takes a lot of time and attention, but she also provides a lot of motivation, as well. It's my first newborn, so it's been a cool experience.”

Charlie Jo’s arrival also marks a new start of sorts for dad, who was struggling before he got the call to compete on season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter in 2023. He had won two in a row since he was released from the UFC in 2021, but without those three letters on his gloves, fighting had turned from a passion to something he was just doing to pay the bills.

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“It's been crazy,” he 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.”

Hubbard, 32, is one of those guys you want to root for. He’s a blue-collar, no-nonsense fighter who treats his craft like a true pro. And while the stereotype is that the most dangerous people in this business are the ones who need this to get out of a bad situation, Hubbard may be even more dangerous because he’s doing this because he wants to.

“I think there's something to be said for both of those examples,” he said. “I think life is about balance. You need some dark days, you need some bright days. I think you need a little bit of both to get to where you want to be in life. And that's just how life goes, in general. Not every day is going to be easy and fun. So it's just learning lessons - you grow, you learn and move forward.”

In April, Hubbard got his hand raised in the Octagon for the first time in three years when he decisioned Michal Figlak, and though he had success outside the UFC and on The Ultimate Fighter (where he made it to the finals), there’s something to be said for getting your hand raised in the big show.

“Oh man, it was great,” said Hubbard. “It was such a relief, especially coming off of that loss in the finals (to Kurt Holobaugh), which I obviously really wanted to win. It didn't go that way and that's how fighting goes, but then coming back, I really wanted to prove to myself that I belong here, and I wanted to prove to the UFC and my fans that I belong here.”

Mission accomplished. But Hubbard isn’t looking too far ahead. It’s Alexander Hernandez, and that’s it.

“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.”