LAS VEGAS – If there’s a certain amount of hype around the UFC debut of his opponent, Allan Nascimento doesn’t seem particularly worried about it.
Nascimento (18-6 MMA, 0-1 UFC) on Saturday takes on Jake Hadley (8-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) in a flyweight bout to open the main card at UFC on ESPN 36. Hadley came to the UFC after a shot on Dana White’s Contender Series, which he got in the wake of a Cage Warriors flyweight title.
“He’s not a problem for me,” Nascimento said at Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN 36 media day. “I come to make the best (performance). I have the best team … that’s the difference inside the octagon, not the hype.”
Nascimento’s teammmates include former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira, who was stripped of the title a week ago when he failed to make weight for his UFC 274 title fight against Justin Gaethje. He won with a first-round submission to set up a vacant title fight against an opponent still to be determined.
And while Nascimento made a pitch in his pre-fight news conference for Oliveira against former featherweight and lightweight champ Conor McGregor in November in Sao Paulo, the UFC said that’s not a fight that has been signed.
UFC on ESPN 36 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main card airs on ESPN2 and streams on ESPN+ following prelims on ESPN2/ESPN+.
Check out the full pre-fight interview with Nascimento in the video above.