Jake Hager discusses his MMA career.
Between the years of 2019 and 2022, Jake Hager would fight in the world of mixed martial arts three times, amassing a 3-0 record while fighting for Bellator. That being said, he could have made the jump a few years prior after meeting Dana White and his agent.
While speaking to Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Hager was asked about his MMA career and if there was a time he could have jumped to the world of mixed martial arts. Jake noted that in 2014, he spoke to Dana White.
“There was a big-time agent that I spoke with in 2014, I can’t remember his name. I went to a UFC Orlando pay-per-view, and my college football coach works for UFC now. He’s good friends with Dana. I sat right behind Shaq, I had great seats, and I got to meet Dana and whatnot. And then after that, I met this agent. He was like, Brock had just started doing it. Brock was really the idea behind it, because I saw how he came back to wrestling, and it made him a bigger star. I’m like, what if I do that, and I wish I had done it sooner. I wish I had done it in 2014. But I didn’t know the path when I first decided to do it, when I left WWE in 2017 I called my friend Josh Rafferty. I met him through Dave Bautista. And I was like, Hey Josh, who was Dave’s MMA coach. He was like, Oh, that’s easy. It was me. I had a lot of beers with this guy throughout the years, and I never knew he was an MMA because he didn’t put it out there. He’s a very humble guy, and we would just hang out and have a good time. And turns out Josh Rafferty was on UFC contender number one, like the season that built the UFC. So we started training together, and I wouldn’t be here without him. 100%.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Hager claimed that John Cena refused to put him over during his time with WWE. You can read more about that here.
Thanks to Chris Van Vliet for the quotes
