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Jake Hadley – A special kind of fighter
Birmingham native Jake ‘White Kong’ Hadley announced to the world on 12th December 2020 on why he should be competing in the UFC.
The flyweight secured the Cage Warriors Gold in a unanimous decision against then-undefeated champion Luke Shanks, with the official scorecards reading 50-42, 50-45 and 50-44 to a then 24-year-old Hadley.
Having made his Cage Warriors debut back in September 2020, you can be forgiven if you’re not familiar with Hadley. Having started his amateur career in 2014, Hadley went 7-2 before getting into the paid ranks in 2018. Winning his first three fights, all in the first round on the local scene, Hadley went out into enemy territory to South African promotion Extreme Fighting Championship Worldwide (EFC) for a shot at the EFC worldwide flyweight belt.
Up against the reigning flyweight champion, Nkazimulo’ Zulu Boy’ Zulu (11-2) Hadley (3-0) held more than his own for the entire five rounds and became the new EFC Flyweight Champion via unanimous decision. With no time to defend his belt, Hadley’s next assignment was for promotion Bellator 227 in Dublin, where he faced Blaine O’Driscoll, with the win coming in round three via RNC for Hadley.
Fighting out of Team Fearless MMA in Birmingham, Hadley has a wealth of Birmingham/Wolverhampton athletes to train with, including current UFC signee Jai Herbert, former UFC signee Tom Breese, Bellator signees’ Dan Cassell and Fabian Edwards and currently ranked number 3 UFC welterweight Leon Edwards.
They prove that you don’t necessarily have to go to the United States to get quality training to improve their skills.
It has always been made a “big thing” that British fighters have the disadvantage when it comes to the wrestling aspect of MMA, hence the jump over the pond to learn more skills. Hadley has thus far proven that the UK is the place to be.
Cage Warriors has been a proven springboard for UK fighters to go straight to the UFC, with the likes of Michael Bisping, Conor McGregor and latest signee Ian Garry; however, now with “The Ultimate Fighter” and “Dana White’s Contender Series” there are other avenues that can increase the potential in having your talents recognised by the UFC.
With having no immediate call up to the UFC, Hadley secured a position on “Dana White’s Contender Series”, initially slotted for 21st September 2021. However, Hadley’s Twitter account announced on 25th August 2021 that his bout was off. Nevertheless, Hadley continued training, and a new date was announced for “Dana White’s Contender Series”, 12th October 2021.
As with all “Dana White’s Contender Series” athletes thus far, Dana White has two rules 1) No contract if you don’t make weight and 2) To act professional. Unfortunately, Hadley missed weight by 1lb, which has never happened to him before in all his professional and amateur fights combined, a total of 15 flyweight bouts. Once the weigh-in had been completed and his opponent agreed to fight still, Hadley went on to apologise profusely for his missed weight.
Come go time Hadley showed up, weathering a competitive first round and getting the finish in the second round via Rear Naked Choke; straight after he secured the win, he went over to the side of the octagon where Dana White, Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard were seated and apologised again for missing weight.
However, Hadley still could not be sure that he’d get a contract with a win under his belt. After all, he missed weight which must have been playing a massive part in his mind.
Dana White started his speech with Laura Sanko, working through the five winners in the winners’ area with the other four winners.
Dana White comes to Hadley’s decision saying, “Hadley is special and super talented” going on to say, “I have two rules 1) You need to make weight if you can’t make weight now what are you going to be like once you’re in the UFC” and 2) “Issues – behind the scene, when somebody shows you who they are, believe that” with that being said he added “Don’t make an as*hole out of me, Jake get over here”, a very emotional Hadley had secured himself a UFC contract.
Whilst making his way over, Laura Sanko pressed Dana White on some of the issues with Hadley. White replied with, “Obviously he has problems that need to be addressed”, again encouraged by Laura Sanko as to why Hadley was chosen considering he had broken his first rule.
“He’s something different than lots of the other kids that come in here”
For 25-year-old Hadley, his journey to being the best flyweight in the world is just beginning. And I, for one, will be looking forward to the journey Hadley will be taking; after all, the flyweight division in the UFC needs new blood after Joseph Benavidez’s retirement.
