By Dane McGuire, U.S. Correspondent If the name Scoggins sound familiar, you are probably aware of current UFC fighter Justin “Tank” Scoggins (11-3 in MMA overall) or his brother, Jared “Psycho” Scoggins (6-1 in MMA overall,) who recently won his debut fight for the Legacy Fighting Alliance developmental promotion. However, it was Justin’s wife and 19-year- old prospect Hannah “The Rock” Scoggins who took center-stage at the 2017 IMMAF Asian Open Championships in Singapore. Beginning in combat at the age of just 16, she would first take up Krav Maga and striking with coach Cody Freeland before winning a handful of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. She then decided to combine her favorite aspects and make the transition to MMA under the Revolution MMA gym and coaches Jimmy Fowler and Bryan Harper. Having her husband supporting her while on her own path in the sport has also helped in her growth. “Honestly, I Iove it. In the training aspect, it can be stressful because, of course, we both get tired and testy sometimes…We’re a team (in and out of the cage). We record each other’s training, talk about techniques, sometimes showing how we do them in the middle of the kitchen at like 11pm at night. Justin being as highly skilled as he is has taught me so much. “To be so young and be able to experience so much in life already is something not a lot of people get. I’ve met some awesome people, seen some really cool places and have learned so much and this is just the beginning. I would say there’s no disadvantages to it, only advantages.” Per Tapology.com, Scoggins is currently ranked as the #2 female pound-for- pound fighter in the state of South Carolina and is the #3 ranked pound-for- pound female fighter in the U.S. southeast region. She most recently won Warfare MMA’s strawweight title by unanimous decision back in May before entering the Asian Open tournament. Prior to the event, her first under the IMMAF banner, Scoggins was a perfect 3-0 with two finishes by way of submission. Next up was her first performance on an international amateur platform. “I didn’t know I would get the BYE, or if there even would be a BYE going into the fight, she said. We found out the day before competition in a random draw. I watched my opponent fight with my whole team and felt very confident in a victory. They told me to just go in there and do what I do. “I am super happy with the way the fight turned out… I didn’t feel it was my prettiest performance, there’s a few things I see I want to work on but I also did some things that I’m really happy with. I had the last girl I fought in the same position I got my IMMAF opponent in and instead of striking for the TKO, I tried for the choke for too long and she escaped. I told myself if I got in that same position again I wouldn’t make the same mistake. So I’m glad to see I’m growing and learning from each fight.” At 1:49 into the second round Scoggins finished her opponent, scoring a TKO over a game Ayan Tursyn of Kazakhstan to take home the strawweight gold medal. Silver medalist Tursyn progessed to the final with a TKO victory over Malaysia’s Amirah Makhtar. Scoggins went on to say that she hopes to continue in IMMAF competition at the World Championships that will be held in Bahrain during November and that later she hopes to make her professional debut. Her only regret was not having known about the IMMAF sooner. “As far as having the honor of representing my country on that Olympic level, I can’t put it into words. Before I did MMA, I did gymnastics and always dreamed of going to the Olympics for that. I never thought I’d get an opportunity to do it in MMA, so for it’s a dream come true.”]]>
