Loughran feels 'at home' in UFC before Hadley bout

Loughran earned his first UFC victory against American Angel Pacheco in March

Bantamweight Caolan Loughran says he is "living the dream" as he ramps up preparations for his latest bout against England's Jake Hadley at UFC 304 on Saturday night in Manchester.

The Tyrone fighter is part of a stacked card which features Britons Leon Edwards and Tom Aspinall aiming to defend their UFC titles on home soil.

The event is being staged overnight to cater to a US audience with Loughran not scheduled in the octagon until the early hours of Sunday morning.

"One in the morning is not that bad. If I was the main event, like Leon [Edwards] Tom [Aspinall], I don't know what I’d do. Nobody knows how to approach that I don’t think," Loughran told BBC Sport NI.

"I don't think you can’t achieve your optimal at 5am. It’s not ideal and that’s just it.

"My camp was 10 weeks and the first two weeks I just trained as normal and then the Saturday night I went to wake my body up for that time at midnight. I did a jog, a shadow box and hit the bag, just to wake the body up at that time.

“The first night and the second night, I realised that this is easy. I don't actually need preparation to do that at this time. I'm lucky that I'm not fighting at 5am."

The 28-year-old, who has one win and one defeat in the UFC, was set to face Ramon Taveras but the American withdrew from the event because of injury.

Hadley steps in as Loughran's third opponent since his introduction to the sport's elite level of competition.

With an overall career record of nine wins and one defeat, Loughran says he aims to reach the esteemed top 15 in the UFC pound for pound rankings.

"Right now I'm just thinking top 15, that's all I'm thinking. I'm thinking three fights this year, three wins," added Loughran, a former Cage Warriors bantamweight champion.

"I’m in no position to be calling out [Sean] O’Malley or Merab [Dvalishvili] at the minute, so run through Hadley on Saturday night, one more fight this year, fight early next year, and I'm probably close to that goal of top 15."

'The UFC is even better than I dreamed'

Loughran feels increasingly comfortable in UFC, saying he feels "at home" fighting there.

"When you're in the UFC and you've been dreaming about it for a long time and you're in the cage and Bruce Buffer's announcing, not that I was nervous or anything, but it's kind of like a 'this is happening' type thing.

"The second time, I had been there before. I'd been visualising what it was like to be in there and felt a lot more comfortable. I know what the UFC octagon feels like.

"The more you do it, the more comfortable it makes you feel and I feel at home here. This is where I’m meant to be and where I'm going to be for the next six, seven years.”