Kay Hansen finally makes her comeback at Invicta FC 55 on Friday, June 28, and it’s been a long road to get back to the cage for the now-24 year-old UFC alum.
Finally making her return after just over two years in a fight with Sayury Canon, strawweight Hansen feels she’s developed significantly as a person since she was last seen in the cage. Not to mention as a fighter.
“It’s been awesome. I’ve had some time off, but I’m also really young and I feel like that was critical for some self-development,” Hansen (7-6) told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview. “And I think that’s definitely going to translate to my performance in the cage.”
A clearly upbeat Hansen noted that she’s been asked about her time off for a while, and admitted that she’s experiencing the emotions of Fight Week again- but is happy to be doing so.
In her time since exiting the UFC, where she last competed in 2022, Hansen dealt with a hand injury, a shattered knuckle that she initially didn’t seek treatment for, thinking she had sprained her hand.
“I definitely probably prolonged it by not getting it checked out right away,” said Hansen. Then, the injury didn’t heal correctly. “It took time to kind of work around that, because it was either re-break it, or let it to its thing. So I just let it do its thing, had to work through some uncomfortable feelings when I punch.”
“I for sure was training one handed for a few months. That was rough, next time I’m definitely going straight to the ER and figure that out.”
“Either way, taking that time off really did help me develop as a person,” Hansen added. And, she noted, she’s remained active in training. “Don’t get me wrong, I was still training. In these two years, I have still been training. It’s not like I took two years off and just jumped back into a camp, and wasn’t active in the gym and wasn’t progressing in the gym. I was still making strides in the gym, I was still showing up to practice. It’s not like I’ve had two years of no training, and then I’m jumping back into a fight.”
To be fair to Hansen, with Invicta FC on hiatus, she looked elsewhere to find fights, only for a handful to fall through. “I had a agreed to three fights this year, and this is the first one that actually came to fruition,” she revealed.
Hansen opened up during her time away about a traumatic upbringing, including allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, which she called a “very weird and taboo topic” that people should feel comfortable speaking up about. Coming forward “was definitely a very intense feeling,” admitted Hansen, especially when a documentary about her experience went live.
“I remember refreshing comments, and being nervous. But I’m very happy I did it, and I’m definitely going to speak about it more in the future,” said Hansen, adding how important it would have been to herself as a young woman to have that sort of voice available to her.
Watch our full interview with Invicta FC 55’s Kay Hansen above.
