Jake Hadley warns rivals he 'can do everything' ahead of UFC debut in Vegas

All eyes will be on Britain's Jake Hadley as he makes his official UFC debut on Saturday night.

Hadley was signed to a UFC deal following successful a rise through regional promotions which involved capturing both the EFC and Cage Warriors flyweight titles and a win on Dana White's Contender Series last year.

The former Cage Warriors champion's signing made headlines, as Hadley delivered a fantastic performance.

However, he missed the flyweight mark of 125lbs and had apparently rubbed key individuals in the UFC up the wrong way with his attitude in the fighter hotel.

Despite this, 'White Kong' still did enough to impress the UFC president, and ahead of his fight on Saturday after his originally scheduled bout was cancelled due to injury, telling the media.

"I think the fans are really excited for this fight based on his (Alaan Nascimento) skillset," Hadley said.

"He (Nascimento) has very good jiu-jitsu, especially off his back, and people know I have good grappling as well.

"I'm a true mixed martial artist, I can fight wherever the fight goes as I've showed in previous fights before, whether it's striking, wrestling or jiu-jitsu on top or jiu-jitsu on my back, I can get back up, I can sweep, I can submit, I can do everything!

"I'll fight according to how the fight goes but I can mix it up."

Hadley's opponent this weekend, Allan Nascimento (18-6), will be looking to show that he belongs in the UFC following defeat in his promotional debut to Tagir Ulanbekov last year.

In eight professional outings, Hadley has two knockout wins and four submission victories and no defeats. He has also recorded the most dominant win in Cage Warriors history when he annihilated Luke Shanks across five rounds in 2020 to lift the promotion's 125lbs title.

In the main event of the evening, former light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz faces off with the number three ranked contender at 205lbs Aleksandar Rakic in what is likely to be a title eliminator.

Blachowicz's fairy-tale story of coming from a 2-4 start with the UFC to rising through the rankings to become the light heavyweight champ ended in 2021 - as Glover Teixeira, a man with his own fairy-tale story - ended Blachowicz's reign by submission.

Saturday night is the Polish fighter's first step back towards the belt he lost.

Rakic meanwhile holds a 14-2 record as a pro with a 6-1 record in the UFC, and will enter Saturday's main event with back-to-back wins in his last two outings.

'The Rocket' has shown his durability in those two outings, beating formidable knockout artist Thiago Santos and the always game Anthony 'Lionheart' Smith by decision, but also has knockout power in his arsenal, with nine of his wins coming via KO.

Saturday's action starts with the early prelims at midnight on UFC Fight Pass, before the prelims begin on BT Sport 1 at 01:00 BST with the main card being scheduled to start at 03:00 BST.