A Bangkok ready guide to Jake Hadley and being the bully

 Aggression is a massive aspect of combat sports. While combat sports are considered arts as much as athletic endeavours, it can’t be denied that a relentless desire to move forward can often bridge significant gaps of skill. While it is not only athletically beneficial to be moving forwards, it is also beneficial from a mental side, as constantly being pushed back can shake the resolve of some of the best technicians. Jake Hadley builds his game around this aggression, choosing to constantly be the hammer over trying to be the nail. Hadley uses his aggression to stifle his opponent’s offensive action, keeping them in defensive cycles that allow him to shut down an opponent and let him pick away at them at will. Hadley’s game is built around this idea of constant forward momentum, using a variety of tactics so that he is the fighter with initiative and his adversary is constantly just reactionary.

Hadley uses his lead hand to shut down his opponent and simultaneously set up his own strikes. The jab is often neglected in the Southpaw orthodox matchup, due to the fact that the opponent can often shut it down by stretching out their own hand and covering the jabber’s fist, blocking the path of the strike. Hadley will use this hand fight in order to use his own jab but deny his opponent of their own. From a neutral ring position he will start jabbing until he can get his opponent backing up, attempting to take outside foot position as he does so. This will often result in the opponent moving back towards the fence, pinning them down and allowing Hadley to start reaching for the led hand. Hadley will then manipulate his opponent’s hand to create openings, while simultaneously muffling his opponent’s jab. He can move the opposing hand like a gear stick to the side, moving a potential blocking hand to the side and shooting his own jab down the centreline. Hadley can alternatively fold his hand over the lead of the opponent’s so he can fire the left straight into his opponent. Covering the jab also stifles any attempts from the opponent at counter offence, preventing them from building into combinations with their jab and forcing them into making more committed strikes like hooks and the right straight. By neutralising the lead hand Hadley is able to shut down his opponent and pick away at them at will, landing jabs and left straight to the head or body at will. 

Hadley’s aggression pays dividends when it comes to his defence. Hadley knows that his opponent will not just passively take a beating, and that eventually his opponent will try and hit him back. Hadley’s defensive tactics build into his aggression, taking away his opponent’s attempts to stop his forward momentum and punishing them for their aggression. Hadley loves using the high elbow block when pressured. When the opponent tries to use their left hand, Hadley will lift his elbow and use it to either parry the jab or block the lead hook with his arm and shoulder. Hadley will then punish the opponent for trying to be offensive, using the rear uppercut to the head or hammering it into the body. The threat of the knockout or getting winded by the body shot is enough to cause major hesitation with his opponent’s, allowing Hadley’s aggressive advances to continue. Having his opponents constantly backing up means Hadley often has a lot of space behind him. While Hadley often covers the path of his opponent’s left hand he still has to worry about the right hand. By removing the left hand as an option, any shots coming from the right hand are more telegraphed, as the left hand cannot be used to cover the movement of the fighter’s shoulders as they move the right side of their body forward. Hadley can use this telegraph and then give himself more times to react to any attacks, moving backwards into open space and stretching out the shot, immediately moving back onto the front foot to make up for lost ground. Hadley uses a similar tactic for dealing with kicks, stepping back and giving him space to parry the kick and then stepping back into space to gain ground on his opponent. Hadley uses the distance created by his relentless aggression in order to improve his defence, funnelling his opponent into giving wild reactions and then giving himself the octagon control to maintain forward pressure despite his opponent’s reactions.

Hadley’s grappling game is just as aggressive as his striking. If you put Hadley on his back he will look to sweep or submit, even if he is losing on the ground. Rubber guard is seldom seen in modern mma, despite how effective it is as a position, because no matter how good your guard game is you will almost always be seen as losing in the judges eyes if you are on bottom in a fight you are losing. Hadley doesn’t seem to care about this though, and is always hunting for offence when on his back, for better or worse. Hadley will look to break his opponent’s posture down in the rubber guard, climbing the top leg over and looking to angle off for the omoplata. The top man’s response is normally to turn into him to escape the submission, allowing Hadley to transition to the almost mythical gogoplata or a triangle choke. While Hadley has yet to get a gogoplata submission in his professional career (although he did get one on the amateur circuit), he had used it to get a reaction out of his opponent, forcing movement and a potential opening to more offence. Hadley will constantly look to punish his opponent’s for their reactions, looking for wrestle ups and back takes. While Hadley tends to shoot himself in the foot with his refusal to just stand up, his doggedness in attacking from wherever he is is advantageous in many ways. His proficiency in technique, coupled with his constant aggression, not only opens up many attacks, but also keeps his opponents in a defensive cycle to the point where it is difficult to start working their own game. Hadley’s grappling, much like his striking, is helped significantly by a bully mentality, with Hadley’s aggressive mindset helping him in both his offensive actions, and stifling the actions of his opponent.

Aggression has helped to carry Hadley through his career as a fighter, keeping forward momentum on his side significantly boosting his fighting ability. Hadley has found many ways to enable this aggression, working a mix of striking and grappling techniques into his game to keep this forward momentum. His techniques are so effective that they have even worked on himself, with Charles Johnson beating Hadley using very similar techniques such as his hand fighting and distance management. Hadley’s methods are something that can be recommended to anyone looking to be more aggressive in a southpaw versus orthodox matchup, adding an extra dimension to your game.