RUMFORD — Eric Austin’s 135-pound physique defies advancing middle age. His lifetime of success in combat sports have kept him sharp and a step ahead of his peers at every stop on the highway of life.

Nearing the crossroads where even the most ardent athletes transition to the less strenuous pastimes of golf, fishing and hunting, maybe it isn’t a complete shock to see someone of Austin’s accomplishments walking into a cage fight.

But when that fight was your debut, and when it came less than two weeks before your 37th birthday, well, it’s relatively remarkable.

“I’ve wrestled all my life, run youth programs, trained with those kids and wrestled against them. I’ve gone to the fights., been a UFC fan for a long time, and I just thought, why not?” Austin said. “I’m in good health. My cardio is good. Let’s give it a shot.”

Austin enjoyed his September unanimous decision victory over Noah Hall so much that he has returned for more.

The former amateur boxer, college grappler and longtime local wrestling coach will square off Saturday with Steve Sobel at Fight Night V, a mixed martial arts card at Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.

He’s no rookie to the mat, the prize ring or a screaming crowd.

By the time he was 14, Austin, the son of a Golden Gloves boxer, had fought approximately a half-dozen times, mostly at local recreation centers and armories.

“My brother and I, rather than have us getting into fisticuffs, my dad bought us gloves and headgear and had us do it that way,” Austin said.

Austin also wrestled from age 7, eventually graduating from the local youth program to Mountain Valley High School, where he was a state champion.

He also was part of a travel team coached by Marshwood High School legend Matt Rix. Austin won bouts up and down the Eastern seaboard.

Later, Austin competed at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire before transitioning into a teacher of the sport. He has coached the Mountain Valley youth program for 12 years. Austin’s impressionable charges are a major inspiration for his exposure to the MMA bug.

“I look at it as I’m representing my kids, my family, the Rumford area, my wrestling team. I’m hoping it gives the kids something else to strive for,” Austin said. “They see the training aspect and the mental aspect. There’s no chance of getting involved with drugs or alcohol when you’re doing that.”

Austin also grew up and attended school with Matt Peterson, the local state representative whose efforts were instrumental in making combat sports legal in Maine after an extended absence.

Peterson, co-founder of New England Fights and co-promoter of the Fight Night series, did his share to lure Austin back into competition.

“I’m having fun with it,” Austin said. “I enjoy fighting in Maine. I don’t have any desire to travel.”

Although his wrestling and boxing backgrounds are assets in MMA, Austin had little formal martial arts training.

He joined Central Maine Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Auburn, which has generated a healthy stable of MMA competitors since Fight Night debuted in February.

“It’s a great bunch of guys. We go Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and do jiu-jitsu from 6:30 to 8, and then from 8 until we get tired we get out the mats and practice MMA. I love the training, both the physical aspect and the mental aspect.”

Those sessions give Austin the opportunity to mix it up with fighters who outweigh him by anywhere from 10 to 75 pounds.

Once he’s in the cage with someone his own size, his strategy is to use his wrestling background to subdue the opponent.

“(Hall) came out swinging, throwing bombs from the get-go. It took me 30 or 40 seconds to get settled in, and then I started to control the match,” Austin said of his September skirmish. “I try to get it to the ground and control it with my wrestling. I went the entire nine-minute distance, which I was proud of.”

It isn’t a career aspiration by any stretch of the imagination. Austin is a carpenter by trade, building houses in the Sunday River region.

So he isn’t fighting for his dinner. And is he nervous? Please. Whether the audience is one or 3,000, Austin has enjoyed the stress of one-on-one competition for 30 years.

“It was a humbling experience. I learned a lot,” Austin said of his first bout. “People talk about getting nervous when they step into the cage. I don’t get the butterflies anymore.”

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