Dana White is a man of principles, who makes the decisions that he feels are best. This backfired a bit after the latest episode of the Contender Series, when he made his matchmakers angry by signing someone they said not to sign.
Dana White’s Contender Series has been one of the best ways for fighters to get a contract to fight in the UFC over the last few months, with practically everyone who gets a win, earning a contract. However that was almost not the case for Jake Hadley, who won his fight this week, but missed weight before the fight.
According to Dana, who spoke to media after the event, this weight miss combined with an apparent bad attitude towards UFC staff led to him being told not to sign Hadley, by matchmakers Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard. Nevertheless, he chose to go against his own rules and sign the prospect anyway, which ruffled some feathers.
“So when I left the back room, my instructions were not to sign this guy. According to Hunter (Campbell), Sean and Mick stormed out of the room when I did, and took off here tonight, so they’re not happy about it,” White said.
“I just have a gut feeling that this kid has something special, and I broke all 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—khead out of me.”
Jake Hadley Was Rude To Staff
Dana White went on to explain that the big issue was Jake Hadley missing weight. He has his own set of rules, where he does not sign fighters from the Contender Series who do not make weight.
However this was not the only issues. Dana did not go into much detail, but says that Jake was not exactly nice to staff throughout the week, earning a bit of a talking to from the UFC bossman before getting the contract.
“He wasn’t very friendly. He’s not a very popular guy around here this week. He seemed shocked when I told him that. I said ‘Come on, you’ve gotta know,'” White said.
“I just saw him out in the hallway and he said ‘I’m real (sorry),’ but I told him ‘Don’t worry about it. Yesterday is yesterday, let’s focus on tomorrow so let’s make this a great relationship from here on out, and let’s do great things together.’ So hopefully that’s the case.”
Despite all of this, White decided to sign the Englishman, simply because he is a big believer in the skills of the 25 year old, undefeated flyweight. He was particularly impressed with the skills shown while Hadley was fighting off of his back.
“Good luck to him though. That kid’s a talented kid. I like the way he fights, he’s super aggressive. I like the way he fights off of his back,” White said.
“I think he’s special. Broke all my own rules, pissed off the boys, so we’ll see if I’m right or wrong… I think that he’s ready to fight in the UFC. I want to see it, so I broke all the rules to do it.”
Dana White Often Fights With Matchmakers
From the outside looking in, it seems hard to imagine Dana White feuding with his matchmakers. That said, this is apparently not an uncommon thing behind the walls of the UFC offices.
Dana says that basically every time they have an episode of the Contender Series, there is always some tension between he, and Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard. Nevertheless they always work things out.
“We fight every week. We fight every Tuesday. Every Tuesday we go into a room and we end up fighting about something. It’s part of the process,” White said.
“I’m never wrong though… The way that I do this, is I obviously surround myself with people whom I respect, and I respect their decision and I listen to the input that they give me, and I make decisions based on their input. I admit a hundred percent that not only did they tell me not to do this, but I broke every rule that I have in dealing with somebody like this. But for some reason, my gut told me that this kid is special and I should sign him.”
Time will tell if Dana White will live to regret this decision. However at 8-0, Jake Hadley is certainly an interesting prospect to be added to the UFC roster.
