Nickname Hellboy
Height 5 ft 9 in
Weight 152 lb
Nationality Norwegian
Born May 26, 1979
Team/Association Hellboy Hansen MMA
Primary fighting style Submission Wrestling, Shooto
Wins 19
By knockout 7
By submission 3
Losses 7
Draws 1
Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen is a Norwegian mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. He began his career fighting for FinnFight before moving on to fight for Shooto where he became the first Scandinavian person to hold a MMA world title after winning the Shooto World Welterweight Championship in 2003 from Takanori Gomi. Hansen later fought for the Pride Fighting Championship and most recently Dream where he became the current Dream Lightweight Champion after winning the 2008 Dream Lightweight Grand Prix. As of February 2009 he is ranked as the fourth best lightweight fighter in the world by both Sherdog and MMAWeekly.
MMA career
FinnFight and Shooto
Hansen began his career fighting for Finnish promotion FinnFight before moving on to fight for Shooto's Finnish branch. His performance got him invited to Shooto's year-end show in 2002 where he, with a 3-1 record, faced Takumi Nakayama who at the time had 14 fights under his belt. Hansen won a majority decision. Hansen's performance impressed Shooto-veteran Rumina Sato who challenged Hansen after the match. The two met three months later the two met and Hansen ended up defeating the Japanese fighter two minutes into the bout by TKO. The win set him up for a title shot against the Shooto World Welterweight Champion, and at the time 14-0, Takanori Gomi. The fight went the distance with Hansen being awarded a majority decision, making him the Shooto World Welterweight Champion and first Scandinavian person to hold a MMA world title. Hansen's first title defense was against another undefeated fighter in Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro who took away Hansen's title by submitting him two minutes into the second round.
Pride Fighting Championships
Hansen went on to win his next seven fights, most notably against Gesias Calvancanti, Caol Uno, Masakazu Imanari and Yves Edwards, before losing a decision to Hayato Sakurai at the semi-finals of the Pride 2005 Lightweight tournament. He then challenged Tatsuya Kawajiri for the Shooto Welteterweight title, but lost by disqualification due to a kick to the groin of Kawajiri. Hansen then went 2-2 in his next four fights, losing to Shinya Aoki and Eiji Mitsuoka, before his next big win against Kazuyuki Miyata at K-1 Premium 2007 Dynamite!!.
Dream
On March 15, 2008 Hansen entered Dream's 16-man 2008 Lightweight Grand-Prix tournament. In the first round of the tournament he faced and defeated Japanese fighter Kotetsu Boku by unanimous decision at Dream.1. The win set him up for a quarterfinal bout against former BodogFight Welterweight Champion, Eddie Alvarez, at Dream.3. Hansen and Alvarez were given a standing ovation for their "outstanding fights" by the entire crowd after their match. After a close fight Alvarez was awarded an unanimous decision and advanced to the semi-finals at Dream 5. The fight was described by MMAWeekly as "a fifteen-minute war" and that it would be a "fight of the year candidate", while Sherdog called it a "riveting 15-minute war" and an "epic battle".
At Dream.5 Hansen defeated Kultar Gill in a reserve bout for the tournament. This became Hansen's ticket to the final after Alvarez, who went on to defeat Tatsuya Kawajiri in the semi-final, was forced to withdraw due to a cut under his right eye. In the final, Hansen faced Japanese submission-specialist Shinya Aoki, who had previously defeated Hansen at Pride Shockwave 2006. In the fight Aoki used his grappling experience to try and submit Hansen after taking him down, but the Norwegian escaped and responded with powerful ground-and-pound which hurt Aoki and eventually forced the referee to step in. The win made Hansen the 2008 Dream Lightweight Grand Prix Champion and the first ever Dream Lightweight Champion. After the bout Hansen told the crowd he wanted his first title defense to be against Eddie Alvarez whom he replaced, and who had previously eliminated him from the tournament.
Hansen's next fight was set to be against Gesias Calvancante at Dynamite!! 2008 on December 31, 2008, but the bout was canceled the day of the event due to Hansen not passing pre-fight medicals and subsequently being hospitalized for a "head injury". It was later clarified that the injury stemmed from a teammate landing awkwardly on Hansen's head after a takedown during warm-up, resulting with Hansen being rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion. In February 2009 Hansen was reported as being healthy and was in negotiations with Dream about his first title defense.
Joachim Hansen-MMA Profile
Linear Mode
