“It was God testing me, how bad do you want it?” – Jake Hadley on the unexpected few days that saw him earn his UFC shot

On Tuesday night, Brummie born Flyweight fighter, Jake Hadley, earned himself a spot in the most prestigious Mixed Martial Arts promotion in the world, the UFC, by beating Ultimate Fighter contender, Mitch Raposo.

In many people’s opinions, the former Cage Warriors Flyweight champion shouldn’t have had to fight on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, as they believed he’d already done enough throughout his unbeaten career to get a call up to the big time.

Unfortunately for Hadley, come weigh ins on Monday afternoon, some unanticipated problems resulted in him missing the 126lbs weight limit by 1lbs, putting his opportunity in jeopardy. He explained that the rare missed weight was ‘God testing me’ and testing ‘how bad do you want it?’

Luckily for ‘White Kong’, his opponent agreed to the fight despite the 1lbs weight difference allowing the Brit to impress Dana White once and for all.

There was an assumption from the commentators on the night, Laura Sanko and Paul Felder, that even if Hadley did win his bout in impressive fashion, he still wouldn’t be given the UFC contract because of his failure to make weight. 

Hadley got the fight to the ground in round 2 after a body kick connected with Raposo, subsequently using his purple belt Jiu-Jitsu skills to get to the 22-year-olds back and sinking in his fourth rear naked choke of his professional career.

After the fight, the camera’s picked up a conversation between Hadley and Dana White, with the UFC President saying: “You’re not very popular around here, your driver didn’t even want to drive you.”

The bemused look on the Flyweight’s face suggested he didn’t understand what the situation was that Dana was talking about. In the post-fight press conference, Jake Hadley explained: “I don’t know what I’ve said to someone to upset them, I just want to say if I’ve upset someone, I haven’t meant it.

“It’s not in a malicious way, that’s not my nature, I’m not nasty in a malicious way.”

He went on to suggest that it could’ve been a misinterpretation due to him being British and the humours being different, comparing himself to UFC Hall of Famer, Michael Bisping. 

Despite Dana being urged against signing the accomplished Flyweight by matchmakers Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard, he did it anyway resulting in the two matchmakers storming out of the Apex. White said: “My instructions were to NOT sign this guy, and according to Hunter, Sean and Mick stormed out of the room and took off from here. “I just have a gut feeling this kid has something special and I broke all of my own rules. Hopefully I’m right on this and the kid doesn’t make a di**head out of me.”