Don’t underestimate Rob Hanna (4-0). Just don’t.
When the Dayton native was knocked down in his last bout against Joey Holt (3-2) early in the first round at Pinnacle FC 7 in March, many figured that monstrous shot would be the beginning of the end for Hanna. The end of his night via knockout, and the end of his undefeated record and overall nine-fight winning streak.
But Hanna wasn’t having it. Instead of losing the fight via knockout, he regained his composure, even nearly coming back to win that first round. He turned the tide in the second round, evening things up with dominant positioning and well-placed elbows from the clinch. Then in the third, he did what many didn’t think he could, in winning a slugfest with a polished striker in Holt.
“You look back at a fight like that, and you watch yourself, and it’s something special to see yourself go through something like that,” Hanna said in a recent interview on The Kyote Ugly Show. “As far as taking a shot, you can’t get hit any harder than I got hit that night.”
The result was a unanimous decision for Hanna, who kept his perfect record intact, and gained a wealth of new fans in the process.
Now, still actively training and running his E.F.S. MMA gym in Dayton, Hanna plans to start promoting fights next month, when he Elite Fighting Series 1 takes place in his hometown. The birth of the organization came from a desire to give young fighters from his own gym a place to compete, as well as helping pump up the MMA scene in Southern Ohio. Many fighters from the area travel to other parts of the state – or even out of state – in order to find fights, because there just aren’t many shows in the area.
“There are a lot of really talented fighters in the Midwest, specifically Ohio, that just aren’t fighting right now,” Hanna said. “There’s just nothing going on for those guys. I’m starting off with an amateur event, but I want to promote professional fights. I want to get these guys paid, and I want to get some money in their pockets.”
While Hanna is excited to get the organization off of the ground, he admits that there have been some bumps along the way.
“Just when you think you know a lot, you find out how little you know,” Hanna said. “What I thought was I could just go out and say, ‘Hey guys, I’m doing an event’ and just kind of publically announce something on Facebook and all of these people would flock to me. And then reality sunk in, and it was like, that’s not the way it really works.”
Hanna did eventually find out the way that it works, and says that many people have been instrumental in helping get EFS off of the ground, including Luke Zachrich, Chuck Wells, Robert Walker, Michelle Kring, Scott Corbin, and more.
It’s an exciting new promotion kicking off things in Ohio, and hopefully that will culminate with getting to see Hanna get step back into competition himself sooner rather than later.
To listen to the full interview, click HERE.