Caolan Loughran expects plenty of fan support at UFC Manchester

Loughran, an Irish teammate of former UFC title challenger Darren Till in nearby Liverpool, thinks he'll feel the love Saturday.

MANCHESTER, England – Caolan Loughran met the media Wednesday ahead of his fight at UFC 304.

Loughran (9-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) takes on Jake Hadley (10-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC) in a bantamweight fight on the ESPN2 preliminary card at Co-op Live in Manchester, England. At media day in Manchester, Loughran took questions from media members before his fight.

Loughran, an Irish teammate of former UFC title challenger Darren Till in nearby Liverpool, was scheduled to fight Ramon Taveras on Saturday, but gets Hadley as a late replacement. He’ll be trying to make it two straight after he suffered his first pro loss this past September.

He said because of Manchester’s proximity to Dublin, he expects a big Irish fanbase – plus his fanbase from training in Liverpool most of the year.

“I trained in my own gym this morning – just a 30-mile drive up the road (to Manchester) or so,” Loughran said. “I’m not the home fighter, but I don’t expect to be too bad this weekend. It’s as close as we’re going to get to UFC Dublin as we can get, so I expect a big Irish contingent in the crowd.”

Check out Loughran’s full media day interview in the video above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.