We are republishing this article from last year in memory of Hannah Rapp, after her sad death over the weekend in which a motorist has been arrested.
WEST LAFAYETTE ― Former Purdue track sprinter Hannah Rapp walked into a boxing gym in Bryan, Texas, in August 2024.
Rapp had moved to College Station, Texas, in August 2024 to become an environmental health and safety specialist at Texas A&M when she met her current trainer, Carl Perry, owner of Bryan/College Station Boxing.
Perry couldn’t have anticipated just how good Rapp was. She started boxing as a physical outlet while taking classes at Purdue. She joined her first gym in Muncie, then a gym in Brookston in the Lafayette area before moving to Texas.
“I don’t know how to describe it,” Perry remembered after seeing Rapp train for the first time. “It was a fierceness. This small female jumped into the ring and became something totally opposite. It was like watching She-Hulk.”
Rapp aspired to become an elite boxer after her first training session in Muncie.
She craved competition. As a runner, Rapp finished eighth at the IHSAA state meet in the 300-meter hurdles during her senior year at Yorktown. She possessed natural quickness and endurance from her years playing soccer, cross country, basketball and track while growing up in the East Central region of Indiana.
Rapp won three consecutive IHSAA sectional girls soccer titles between 2015 and 2017, scored 53 goals and registered 30 assists.
So, why boxing? Rapp equated fighting to the experiences she had in high school. She played both soccer and ran cross country in the same season.
She loved the hurt, the pain, the triumph of starting and finishing an arduous match or race.
“There’s not a lot of stuff in life that are worthwhile that are super easy,” Rapp said.
Rising up the boxing ranks
Now a few years into her career, Rapp is 7-0-1 in eight career professional fights. She won the North American Boxing Federation featherweight belt in 2024 after three months training in Texas. She only had eight amateur fights and carried a record of 6-2 before turning pro.
Perry has watched Rapp taking shots, counterpunch, jab and land hooks that have caused training partners to fall on one knee. It’s helped her get the nickname “Hanarchy.”
“She’s fearless,” Perry said. “I have tons of people that come into the gym that want to be a successful boxer, but they still have that fear of getting hit. She has no fear. She doesn’t care if she’s getting hit by a male, female. She’s going to take it and she’s going to give it right back.”
Origins in Brookston and Muncie
Boxing became Rapp’s newest athletic venture while at Purdue.
“I always wanted to try a martial art, and I looked up the nearest boxing gym,” Rapp said. “My first day boxing, I found that spark. I fell in love with it immediately, and my coaches recognized what I felt and I knew in my heart that if I stick with it, I could go as far I wanted to go.”
Rapp started at Triumph Boxing and MMA in Muncie before moving over to Darkside Boxing in Brookston so she could train more and keep taking classes at Purdue.
Darkside Boxing coach Connor Mitton remembered how he first saw Rapp at an Indiana Golden Gloves tournament.
“She was absolutely dominating, and I was blown away by how she was performing,” Mitton said.
Hard knocks and building skills in Brookston
Mitton oversaw Rapp’s development as she transitioned between gyms.
Rapp showed a natural ability to walk her opponents down, inside the body, strike with her left jab, bring through her right while maintaining a defending position to evade counterpunches.
“She was very aggressive right out the rib,” Mitton said. “The volume of punching she was throwing ― the biggest thing was her ability was her ability to punch and move at the same time. That’s always very difficult for beginning boxers. And she was just able to track down her opponents and punch at the same time. She already had it.”
Mitton saw he could improve Rapp’s movement.
“We took it to a whole new level, and her footwork is still amazing,” Mitton said. “Also sharpening up a lot of basics. I believe her inside fighting is something we were able to take to a whole another level.”
She not only trained but began immersing herself in the sport’s lore. She studied the movement of Sugar Ray Leonard, the jab of Vasiliy Lomachenko, the body punching of Gennedy Golovkin and defense of Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“She was a sponge,” Mitton said. “Anything that I told her, she soaked it up and she was always doing her own homework. She was watching fights, watching YouTube videos and she would soak it up, retain the information and apply it.”
Not only was Rapp making herself better, but she was also inspiring the other fighters at Darkside Boxing.
Her years training as a college athlete lent itself to teaching her fellow fighters how to train and prepare. Included among those fighters is 17-year-old Aiden Myers, who attends McCutcheon High School and was the Indiana Golden Gloves Youth Champion at 132 pounds last year.
“They wanted to beat each other, and they were the two hardest workers in our gym,” Mitton said.
Rapp used her left-handed and counter right in her last fight on Oct. 26 to defeat previously undefeated Peggy Whitmore. Quickness, long reach, snapping her jab and understanding of timing and pace helped win by unanimous decision.
“That lit a fire in me because I always feel like I have more gears to turn to,” Rapp said. “I tend to get better as the fight goes on.”
What’s next for Hannah Rapp?
Perry believes that Rapp reaching the big stage “is only a matter of time.”
Unbeaten in eight fights, Rapp has won four of her bouts by technical knockout. Rapp is working with super lightweight boxer Ryan “Cowboy” Karl, who is working as her manager.
But finding willing challengers is hard for Rapp. Perry believes it’s because other fighters are afraid to face her.
“They see what she’s all about,” Perry said. “She’s punches very hard. A lot of people see this skinny girl from Indiana, but she can punch and she hits hard. When you see her out of the gym, she looks average and wouldn’t see her as a fighter. But you get in and you see her fight, all of a sudden that perception changes and they see this girl is a true badass. There’s a lot of people who are scared of her.”
Rapp has a combination of her jab, connecting landing blows through movement and a personality that Perry believes will eventually resonate with mainstream boxing fans.
Rapp chooses her walkout music based on the tastes of the fans she’s fighting in front of.
When she fought in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Rapp walked out to La Chona before knocking out Ximena Danae Soto Islas. During her last fight in Houston, she used La Vaca.
Rapp understands that it’s not enough to win, but it brings a flair that will in time create a following among boxing fans.
“I like playing homage to the places I fight at,” Rapp said. “Above all, I want the music to prepare me to fight and get me into the headspace I need to feel flowy and rhythmic.”
Since walking into the gym at Triumph Boxing and MMA, Rapp has envisioned herself getting her taped hand and arm raised in front of thousands. Rapp envisions herself representing both Yorktown and West Lafayette in her quest toward becoming a world champion.
“I’ve always believed from day one that, that was my ultimate goal,” Rapp said. “It doesn’t end there. I have a high ceiling, to take it as far as I can and become the best I can possibly be.”
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue grad-turned-boxer Hannah Rapp was rising through the ranks before killed
Reporting by Ethan Hanson, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ethan Hanson, Lafayette Journal & Courier | USA TODAY Network
