5 Things You Might Not Know About Austin Vanderford

Austin Vanderford now must prove he can get back on the horse.

The 32-year-old Bellator MMA middleweight contender will step back into the cage for the first time since he suffered his first career defeat when he matches wits and fists with Aaron Jeffery in a featured Bellator 284 attraction on Friday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Vanderford carries an 11-1 mark into the match. He last competed at Bellator 275, where he succumbed to first-round punches from Gegard Mousasi and failed in his bid to capture the company’s middleweight crown. It lasted just 85 seconds.

As Vanderford dusts himself off and sets his sights on Jeffery at 185 pounds, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. His beginnings could not be any humbler.

Vanderford grew up in Ninilchik, Alaska—a census-designated place of less than 900 people situated some 225 miles to the southwest of Anchorage. He was an all-conference basketball player and two-time state wrestling champion at the Ninilchik School.

2. He spread his wings in the singlet.

“The Gentleman” wrestled collegiately at Southern Oregon University, where he was a two-time All-American and won an NAIA national championship at 184 pounds in 2012. Vanderford went on to coach for the Raiders before turning his attention to prizefighting.

3. He was a late arrival.

While he was undefeated as an amateur, Vanderford did not make his professional mixed martial arts debut until the age of 27. He put away Sal Renato with punches in the first round of their pairing at Prime Fighting 9 on March 11, 2017 in Ridgefield, Washington.

4. All the regional boxes were checked.

Vanderford laid claim to the CageSport welterweight championship in October 2017, when he took a five-round unanimous decision from Ben Fodor, aka “Phoenix Jones,” in the CageSport 47 main event. Along with a successful outing on Season 2 of Dana White’s Contender Series, he went on to compete in the Victory Fighting Championship and Final Fight Championship organizations before signing with Bellator in 2019.

5. Proven commodities surround him daily.

Operating out of the revered American Top Team camp in Coconut Creek, Florida, Vanderford has top-flight resources at his disposal, from coaches like Mike Thomas Brown and Marcus “Conan” Silveira to training partners like Jorge Masvidal, Dustin Poirier and Yoel Romero. The association has opened other avenues for him. Vanderford and wife Paige VanZant have made several appearances on All Elite Wrestling, doing so alongside ATT founder Dan Lambert.