Issue 061
April 2010
Joachim ‘Hellboy’ Hansen is not your typical superstar and prefers a quiet life in his native Norway to the glitz and glamour of the international MMA scene, but the fiery lightweight has risen to the very top of the sport during a ten-year career that has seen him face some of the game’s very best fighters.
Though he is only 30 years of age, Joachim Hansen is one of those fighters it is impossible not to refer to as a grizzled veteran. With almost 30 MMA fights to his name (as well as a string of boxing, kickboxing and grappling bouts), Hansen is a quiet warrior who lets his fists do the talking.
Long considered one of the world’s best lightweight fighters and a firm fixture in the top ten rankings for the last few years, Hansen has fought fighters such as Shinya Aoki (three times), Takanori Gomi, Eddie Alvarez, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Hayato Sakurai, Yves Edwards, Caol Uno and Gesias ‘JZ’ Calvancanti.
Hansen started his career as a fighter back in 1999 fighting on the infamous FinnFight promotion, a true vale tudo-style competition where minimal rules meant fights were often brutal. “It was pretty rough,” says Hansen. “You were allowed to pull hair, head-butt, elbow – everything.” FinnFight was an annual competition held in the fighting-crazy city of Turku in Finland. Hansen was forced to travel there to fight due to the fact that MMA was (and still is) outlawed in Norway. That hasn’t stopped the country from producing a number of tough, technical fighters, of which Hansen is considered the leading figure. “Most people don’t know who I am in Norway, but there is an underground circuit that know of me, which is growing. The problem is the president of one of the largest martial arts organisations still does not consider MMA a martial art, so this has caused problems for us in Norway.”
With no opportunity for competition in his homeland, Hansen’s next-level skills were soon in demand in Japan. He travelled to East Asia for the first time in 2002, and his blend of technical grappling and fight-finishing aggression soon endeared him to local fans. Hansen loves fighting in Japan, and save for three bouts (trips to Finland in 2004 and the USA in 2004 and 2007) he has consistently fought there over the last eight years. “It’s awesome. It’s a really cool atmosphere in Japan, the spectators are awesome and I just really love the culture – there’s nothing like it,” he says. “Fighters competing in Japan are really appreciated by the fans. They really get to know the fighters as it is on national TV. It can be a bit crazy sometimes, you know? But taking pictures and giving autographs are a part of it and it’s nice to make the fans happy.”
Fighting in Japan has given Hansen the opportunity to face some of the world’s best lightweights. He has wins over Dream champion Shinya Aoki, K-1 champ Gesias Calvancanti and former Pride and Shooto champ Takanori Gomi (“they all hold good memories”), but feels that it is time for a drop in weight. At 30 years old and with ten years of competing as a top lightweight, isn’t it a bit late to be thinking about going to featherweight? “Are you saying I’m old?” he jokes. “I’m gonna go down to featherweight because I was 68.3kg when I last fought Aoki. Everyone else is dropping weight so hell, why not me?”
Fans may wonder why they haven’t seen more of Hansen. When Zuffa acquired Pride in 2007 it was expected that Hansen would be one of the first fighters to appear in the Octagon, but Hansen rejected calls from the UFC, deeming the figures he was offered as insulting. Asked whether he would ever reconsider his position on the UFC, he would only answer cryptically: “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
“I fought in the States two times and won. I would definitely like to fight there again. I like Strikeforce, they have a lot of good fighters and put on great shows. Anyone at 145lb would be a challenge.”
Hansen’s future is wide open. New opportunities present themselves with the drop in weight, but he will not reveal what he has planned next. “I will fight as long as I have the fire and my body allows me to. The future is always changing so I live in the moment, but I see a belt of precious metal around my waist.”
DID YOU KNOW?
- Before Hansen became a professional fighter he worked for his father as a delivery man, transporting soap, plates and cutlery to hospitals and the military.
- Norway is known as the home of black metal, an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. In his downtime Hansen likes to shred some riffs on his black Jackson Warrior guitar. “I have a band with a couple of my buddies, but it is hard as MMA is my priority at the moment. I’m not super good but I do play well.”
