Austen Lane expecting a “bloody war” against Mario Pinto at UFC Vegas 103: “We can both throw leather”

Austen Lane wasn’t sure if he was going to get another fight in the UFC.

Lane picked up his first UFC win as he beat Robelis Despaigne by decision back in October. It was a massive win for him as it was the final fight on his deal, but he admitted he wasn’t sure if the UFC would re-sign him.

“I thought it was about a coin flip, about a 50% chance of getting re-signed and a 50% chance of them saying thanks for everything, see you later,” Lane said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com.

Once Lane was re-signed, he says he was originally offered to fight a heavyweight who trains at Xtreme Couture. That ruled out him going back to Vegas to do his camp, so he made the move to American Top Team in Florida.

“I had to change some things because originally my opponent was supposed to be out of Xtreme Couture so I couldn’t come out to Vegas,” Lane added. “So, I ended up doing my entire fight camp at American Top Team and when my opponent fell out, six-seven weeks ago, I decided to stay at American Top Team because they were so good to me.”

Austen Lane is expecting a war against Mario Pinto

Although Austen Lane will now take on Mario Pinto who wasn’t the original opponent, he remained at American Top Team.

Entering this fight, Lane knows people will be writing him and expecting to get knocked out again. But, he is confident he will be able to get his hand raised, but is expecting a very tough fight.

“You look at Mario Pinto, he’s a very versatile striker and a very calm and collective striker. He’s fought some great grapplers, some great strikers. But, he is always calm and makes the opponents make the mistakes,” Lane said. “He’s a complete fighter, more of a striker but you can’t sleep on his grappling. It will be a great matchup, ready to go to war… We can both throw leather and I am comfortable wherever the fight goes but I’m expecting a bloody war.”

Should Austen Lane beat Mario Pinto at UFC Vegas 103, he isn’t sure what it does for him.

“It’s so hard to read this division, guys are coming and going. It’s wild. I’m just focused on the task at hand and focused on getting my hand raised. I’m taking it one fight at a time.”