Things got a little heated between flyweights Cody Durden and Jake Hadley during their face-off ahead of UFC Nashville; whether that played into the fight remained to be seen.
Both fighters entered the night off modest win streaks, with Hadley having won two straight, and Durden three.
The first round was a high-paced round, with each fighter having their moments. Durden was landing tons of right hands and landed an elbow, leading to a nasty cut above Hadley’s eye. Cody Durden was able to get Jake Hadley down and land some good ground and pound throughout the round. Jake Hadley tried to finish the fight with 20 seconds left in the round when he locked in a guillotine to finish the round.
The fight continued into the second round as both fighters continued the war. Both fighters landed some shots in the pocket, but Durden quickly took the fight back to the ground. Durden was doing some solid work on the ground, but Hadley, who is dangerous on the ground himself, would not go away. Hadley was able to use his Jiu-Jitsu to put Durden in a triangle choke with an armbar. Durden, who was in pain, continued to prove how tough he was in this round, hanging on to get to round 3.
The third and final round was all about who was more tired in this back-and-forth bout. Durden was able to use his wrestling yet again to get the fight to the mat. The difference in this round was that Hadley had slowed down tremendously and was not able to go for any chokes or use his jiu-jitsu to his advantage anymore. Durden was able to land damage and wrestle Jake Hadley to a victory.
This was a great fight between two absolute warriors, but the veteran Cody Durden was able to win a landslide on the judges scorecards in a 30-27 victory. Jake Hadley ran into another tough test in his UFC career when he allowed himself to get taken down and was too confident in his jiu-jitsu. Jake Hadley is still a young martial artist in the UFC with lots to learn. This will be Jake Hadley’s second loss in the UFC to a wrestler, so it will be interesting to see where the talented prospect goes from here.
Official Result: Cody Durden def. Jake Hadley via Unanimous Decision (30-27×3)
