Jake Hadley, who fights at UFC 286 tonight, once made a birthday wish as a nine-year-old to be a UFC fighter,
Flyweight prospect Hadley fulfilled his dream as a youngster last May when he made his UFC debut against Allan Nascimento in Las Vegas. The fight came after Hadley won his fight on Dana White’s Contender Series and the UFC boss broke his own rules by signing the Brummie having been told not to by his matchmakers.
Things didn’t go as planned for Hadley in his promotional debut as he was outpointed by Nascimento over three rounds, suffering his first professional defeat in the process. ‘White Rhino’ rebounded after the fight by tapping out Carlos Candelario last November and he now looks to pick up his second UFC win when he fights Malcolm Gordon on the undercard of Leon Edwards' welterweight title fight against Kamaru Usman at The O2 arena this Saturday.
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Reflecting on a home video of his nine-year-old self making a wish to eventually become a UFC fighter, Hadley said: "For all my life I wanted to be a UFC fighter, I was only about nine years old in that video but before then I was dreaming of it. I didn't start training until I was 12 years old because my parents thought it was dangerous.
"I had grown up around fighting as my grandad boxed and I used to watch the old school UFC and boxing events with my dad. I had been dreaming about it for years. I remember being at school as a kid and thinking 'I don't need to listen to this s***, I'm going to be champion of the world one day.' I hadn't even started training at that point, so I had the ambition without the knowledge."
Hadley admitted that his family members, school friends and teachers advised him against MMA but he was always confident he could make a career out of it. The 26-year-old proved his doubters wrong when he won the British jiu-jitsu championships and he plans to do it again by becoming a UFC champion.
"I had people at school telling me that I wasn't going to get here and teachers telling me 'You won't even make it to professional'. I remember winning the British jiu-jitsu championship and being like 'I'm a British champion now, I will get there' so I was already starting to prove them wrong. A lot of people advised me against it, but I keep doing what I'm doing."
