Jake Hadley came into the UFC with quite a bit of hype behind him. Not only did he have a storied career in Cage Warriors across the pond, but he built up a reputation on Contender Series. On the Tuesday night show, he became the only fighter to get weight and still get a contract, largely due to Dana White taking a liking to his dominating style.
However, the debut didn’t go quite as smoothly for Birmingham, England’s own. That fight was frustrating for him in more than one way.
“I had a serious injury one minute into the fight [with Nascimento]. It’s a bit of a sad thing to happen during the fight. It was frustrating that I couldn’t get back into the cage because that’s what I wanted to do,” Hadley said. “But it did give me more time to reassess the performance and have a look at some of the things and correct some of the things in the gym.”
Hadley went on to clarify that he wasn’t blaming the injury for the loss and tipped his hat to Allan Nascimento’s performance.
Unfortunately for Hadley, though, that injury continued to cause him issues. He was originally supposed to get back in there this past August with Victor Altamirano, but it wound up being worse than he thought.
“Basically, what it was, I picked up an injury during my fight, which I didn’t think was as bad as it actually was,” he said. “I’m fully recovered from that now because I actually took the time to let it heal and whatever. So I’m back to normal now.”
And being back to normal, he’s feeling like he’s going to make that first UFC impression that he always wanted to. If he’s going to do it, it’ll be at the expense of Carlos Candelario,.
“To be honest I feel like I can knock him out or I can submit him really,” Hadley said matter-of-factly. “I can pick whatever I want to do to him – I think it’s going to be a finish.”
The fight between Hadley and Candelario will take place this Saturday at UFC Vegas 64. That fight will be on the ESPN+ prelims starting at 4pm EST.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 2:16.
