NAAFS: 'Wild Wild' Wes Hanson Making Pro Debut at Caged Vengeance 14

A year-and-a-half ago, I did an interview with Wes Hanson as he was preparing for his bout against Thomas Uylenbroek for an NAAFS event. The NAAFS, for those who don't know, is the North American Allied Fight Series and puts on outstanding fight cards in and around Ohio.

Hanson, who fights out of Leon Ramsey’s Dawghouse Gym, had the vibe of someone you couldn't help but pull for. In our conversation that day, he spoke candidly about what motivates him, where his life had led him and where he wants to go. Of the 200 pieces I've written for Bleacher Report, I still go back to my interview with Wes as one of my favorites.

I'm thankful enough to have the opportunity to conduct interviews with fighters in all stages of their careers—those on the comeback trail in the UFC, and those who are doing things the right way to move up the ranks and pursue their MMA career ambitions. At age 25, Hanson is somebody who I believe is going to be on many other radars within the next couple of years.

Between March 2011 and June 2012, Hanson racked up seven wins to begin his amateur career. Six of those seven wins were blurs with only one of them lasting longer than two minutes. He's a 145er that has the exciting blend of knockout power and dominant submissions.

Earlier this year, Hanson made his professional kickboxing debut and came out of it with a first-round TKO victory.

The one blip on Hanson's amateur record came in his last fight against Dominic Mazzotta about seven months ago. In that fight, Mazzotta didn't necessarily put a beating on Hanson, but he did manage to smother and hold Hanson enough to grind out a win. If anything it was a learning experience for "Wild Wild" Wes, and he has no doubt worked with his team on how to prevent that same sort of situation from occurring again.

Now, Hanson is set to make the jump to the professional ranks this Saturday night as part of the Caged Vengeance 14 Fight Card against Chaz Holloway. Holloway will also be amped up as he will be making his professional debut as well.

Hanson goes into his fights wanting to finish as is evident by his six first-round finishes. Holloway has had five of his seven fights go to a decision. He may very well try to utilize the same type of strategy that Mazzotta used to avoid Hanson's explosiveness and slow down the pace of the fight. With as much time as Hanson has had to continue evolving his craft as a MMA fighter, I'd be very surprised to see him allow Holloway to dictate the pace of this fight.

If you happen to be around Veterans Hall in Carrollton, Ohio on Saturday night, do yourself a favor and go check out this NAAFS card.

Joe Chacon is a MMA Columnist for Bleacher Report and The MMA Corner. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.