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Norway’s Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen is my favourite athlete in all of combat sports. For me, picking favourite fighters in this great sport is a challenging task. In general, I respect all fighters that step into the ring/cage and put it on the line. Some of my favourite fighters include Fedor, Nogueira, Machida and GSP, but Hansen easily takes the cake. No one embodies the qualities I respect in a mixed martial artist quite like “Hellboy”.

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Joachim Hansen is arguably the most battle-tested lightweight on the planet. Since his Japanese debut in Shooto at the 2002 Year-End Show where he defeated Takumi Nakayama, Hansen has consistently gone to war with the best the division has to offer. He has fought two of the three best lightweight grapplers in the world, in Vitor Ribeiro and Shinya Aoki(B.J. Penn being the third). He has fought nearly all the biggest stars in Japan: Sato, Gomi, Uno, Sakurai, Kawajiri, tough Brazilians(Cavalcanti and Azeredo) and dangerous Americans(Edwards and Alvarez). Hansen’s willingness to fight any and all comers, is an attribute I wish more fighters in this sport had.

“He thinks he is crazy…I’ll show him crazy”

While the list of opponents “Hellboy” has faced over the last several years is incredibly impressive, what is even more impressive is the quality of fights he has had over that span of time. His fight with Caol Uno in March 2005, is one of the best fights in the history of the sport. It’s a sublime duel of slick mat-work, stand-up exchanges, and a violent conclusion. In many ways this fight epitomizes what you should expect from a Joachim Hansen fight: 100% aggression from bell to bell. That same year he went on to have two excellent fights in the same night against Yves Edwards and “Mach” Sakurai at Bushido 9: The Tournament. That’s 30 minutes of fighting.

In 2006 he fought Luiz Azeredo at Bushido 10, in what is easily my favourite fight of the year. Both men threw everything they had at one another, before Hansen felled Azeredo with a brutal knee-kick. This fight also has a few examples of Hansen’s Viking warrior spirit. At one point while in Azeredo’s guard, Hansen let his opponent hit him with upward hammer-fists in order to open up an opportunity for his own offense. He also challenged Azeredo after being hit with a liver-kick late in the fight. This aggressive warrior spirit was again on display in his victory over Kotetsu Boku in March of this year, as he would let Boku hit him, before charging forward with his own flurries.

Hansen’s style is aggressive, and could even be deemed reckless. Lord knows it has gotten him into many precarious positions in fights, and in some cases may have led to his defeat. It’s this aggressive, relentless attack though, that has endeared him to fight fans all over the world.

It’s always nice to fight in front of a Japanese audience. It’s always nice to win in front of a Japanese audience, but it’s also nice to get beaten in front of a Japanese audience.

Despite being brutal to his opponents in the ring, Hansen is a class-act outside the ring, and an excellent ambassador for the sport. After his war this past weekend with Eddie Alvarez which was yet another FOTYC, Hansen didn’t have to hang around the ring, or say anything on the microphone, but he did. “Eddie, you’re the toughest man I’ve ever fought”. Incredibly high praise coming from someone with Joachim’s track record.

Joachim Hansen is a talented, charismatic warrior. When I want to give someone a taste of what this sport is all about, I often throw on one of his fights. The passion and excitement he brings to the table every time he steps foot in the ring is unmatched. Joachim turns 29 at the end of the month, hopefully we get a chance to watch him compete for several years to come.

-Marc Staehling