Sherdog Prospect Watch: Austin Bashi

Austin Bashi has just about worn out his welcome on the regional mixed martial arts scene.

The undefeated 22-year-old bantamweight prospect has compiled a perfect 11-0 record with six finishes, four via submission, since he turned pro in 2022 following a successful amateur wrestling career at West Bloomfield High School in his native Michigan. All the requisite skills appear to have fallen into place. Bashi struck gold at the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation No-Gi World Championships as a brown belt in December, then received his promotion to black belt soon after.

Having emerged as one of the top unsigned 135-pound talents in the sport, Bashi has already captured titles in the Lights Out Championship and Shamrock Fighting Championships promotions. He continues to flesh out his all-terrain game at Warrior Way Martial Arts in Walled Lake, Michigan—a gym owned and operated by Harvy Berman, a BJJ black belt who once trained under Helio Gracie.

“These past three years have been pretty crazy, you know, [with] 13 fights in three years—two amateur fights and then 11 pro fights,” Bashi told FightWave. “For me, activity is a very big thing. I like to be very active. I like to fight at least three, four times a year. I’ve been doing this since I was 8 years old, so for 14 years, all I have really been doing is training and getting better.”

Bashi finds self-assurance in his routine.

“All my confidence comes from my preparation in the gym,” he said. “I’m literally there all day long, eight, nine hours a day. I feel like I’m one of the most disciplined people there is out there.”

In his most recent assignment, Bashi retained his Lights Out Championship bantamweight crown in resounding fashion with a second-round rear-naked choke submission of two-time Legacy Fighting Alliance headliner Askar Askar at LOC 13 on Sept. 13. Askar, who had never before been submitted, conceded defeat 1:48 into Round 2.

“I expected a 25-minute war coming into this fight,” Bashi said afterward. “We knew this was going to be our hardest test yet, so getting the quick second-round finish was honestly a blessing. We trained for 25 hard minutes because that’s what we thought it was going to be.”

Bashi kept “AK-47” guessing in the first round, where he employed an active clinch replete with knees, shoulder strikes and short-range elbows. Askar answered with a few thudding right hance once they returned to open space, but he surrendered a takedown near the end of the period that provided some foreshadowing of what was to come.

“He had heavy hands. We knew that. I feel it right now. It’s definitely going to be hard eating for the next few days,” Bashi said. “My coaches were telling me to circle, move around, feint a lot. The first round I really couldn’t get my takedowns going, but I’ve said it before. I’m not just going to stop after two, three, four takedowns. I’ll go shoot 200 takedowns until I get it.”

Bashi indeed executed a lightning-quick double-leg takedown, progressed to the back and secured his position with a body triangle less than a minute into the middle stanza. He pestered Askar with ground-and-pound and eventually forced him to expose his neck with a steady flow of punches to the side of the head. From there, Bashi snaked his arms into position, went palm-to-palm with his grip and let his squeeze do the rest.

“I feel like pressure either breaks people or makes people,” Bashi said. “I love the pressure. I love when all the lights are on. It really shows me, as a person, who I am and how I handle myself, in and out of this cage.”