“My instructions were not to sign this guy” – Dana White reveals why he signed Jake Hadley to the UFC despite Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard not wanting him to

Dana White has revealed that fellow executives Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard were “not happy” with his decision to sign Jake Hadley.

White has said in the past that he follows a strict set of principles when it comes to signing fighters. One of those rules is to avoid fighters who miss weight, especially during the Contender Series. However, the UFC boss admitted that he broke his own rule, to the dismay of his colleagues. At a press conference, White told reporters:

“When I left the backroom, my instructions were not to sign this guy. And according to Hunter [Campbell], Sean and Mick stormed out of the room and took off here tonight so they were not happy about it. I just have a gut feeling that this kid has something special and I broke my own rules. Broke my own rules and didn’t listen to what they said. So hopefully I’m right on this and this kid doesn’t make a d***head out of me.”

This comes after Cage Warriors flyweight champion Jake Hadley missed weight ahead of his matchup with The Ultimate Fighter season 29 contestant Mitch Raposo. On Tuesday night, Hadley earned a second-round submission victory over Raposo. White was apparently very impressed by Hadley’s performance so much that he went against his own principles.

The UFC head honcho also told Laura Sanko that Hadley had some behind-the-scenes issues on top of missing weight. White revealed that the 25-year-old Englishman displayed some non-professional behavior towards UFC staff.

Dana White dismisses Jake Hadley’s claim that he was merely misunderstood

Jake Hadley believes his sense of humor was misunderstood due to cultural differences between the US and the UK. While Dana White was keen to forgive Hadley’s unprofessional behavior, he couldn’t help but scoff at the Englishman’s explanation. White added:

“So everybody this week thought that he was an asshole because there’s a discrepancy between the sense of humor? We have lots of guys from the U.K. here. That doesn’t happen a lot, although [Michael] Bisping, Bisping’s right up there, too. But he’s part of the family now, he’s been here so long. People know what they’re getting from Mike.”

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