Youngster Kay Hansen, just 22, was recently let go at the end of a four-fight deal with the UFC — but her fighting career is far from over.
Hansen (7-6) has inked a multi-fight deal with Invicta FC, her management team, Upgrade Management, announced on Friday. Hansen got her start with Invicta as a teenager, and is 5-3 under the all-female promotion’s banner, excluding a win in an exhibition bout as part of their Phoenix Series 2 tournament.
Competing earlier this month at UFC 273, Hansen suffered her third consecutive loss inside the octagon, this time against Piera Rodriguez. After winning her UFC debut against former Invicta FC atomweight champ Jinh Yu Frey, Hansen would also drop bouts to Cory McKenna and Jasmine Jasudavicius. All three of her UFC losses went the distance; all three came against fighters making their promotional debut.
While the losses were tough, Hansen also took an immense amount of criticism over her activities outside of fighting, primarily aimed at her presence on adult content platform Only Fans. Many fans were critical of the time Hansen was spending essentially hawking explicit photos, leading her to pen a rebuttal following her loss to Rodriguez.
“And for anyone saying “mAyBe If ShE dIdNt HaVe An OnLy FaNs…” get a life. I train 2/3 times a day, live a disciples life and I’m the hardest worker you’ll meet,” Hansen wrote on social media. “Posting a photo on a site has ZERO impact on my fighting performance. Take your pathetic hate somewhere else.”
Come say hi 💖 https://t.co/JUq58bOVIO (and check out my latest raffle on there 😅👀) pic.twitter.com/zEchlCa10G
— Kay Hansen (@KayHansenMMA) April 28, 2022
Hansen has restricted interactions on her social media pages, but her most recent content has been more focused on training sessions. Whether that placates her critics remains to be seen.
