British prospect Jake Hadley has admitted that losing his UFC debut earlier this year was mentally difficult to deal with.
Hadley, 26, was looking to kickstart his UFC career against Allan Nascimento in May but was beaten decisively by the Brazilian, who is a training partner of former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira. 'White Kong' looks to pick up his first UFC win this Saturday in the same arena where he lost his debut as he challenges Carlos Candelario in Las Vegas.
Reflecting on the debut that didn't go his way, Hadley told Mirror Fighting : "I was on such a good win streak and doing so well that I didn't fix some things in my training but the loss has made me do that. It was a hard time for me mentally, but I'm over that now and I'm looking to improve on it in this fight.
"The Nascimento fight came about because nobody would take a fight with me or him, so we kind of got stuck with each other. I knew it was a hard one because he's one of the best fighters in the division, in my opinion. I've taken a few things from the fight, a few mental things as well. I was ever going to lose a fight, I thought that someone would catch me and I wouldn't be beaten over three rounds."
Candelario is fighting for his UFC future against Hadley this Saturday having lost his past two fights to Tatsuro Taria and Victor Altamirano. The 31-year-old record has a similar record to Hadley but the Birmingham local has insisted his opponent is not on his level and that will show in their fight.
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"He lost on the Contender Series to Victor, who I was supposed to fight," Hadley added. "I do think Nascimento is a harder fight than him, though. He's got some skills but he's not on my level, 90 per cent of his fights are [against] journeymen and I've fought high-level guys. He's definitely going to come and give it his all but this is his last hurrah.
"He's 31 years old; if he can't win now the UFC are going to kick him out, basically. He's not a young buck for the flyweight division, he's in the peak of his career, but if you can't win fights in your peak, then he's going to be gone. If we have to fight down toughness, I'll beat him in that game as well."
