Brad Pickett: Respect to One Punch

At UFC Fight Night 107 in March, the event is scheduled to see the final fight of a UFC and MMA veteran who while he arguably is not an MMA legend, has certainly been a favorite performer of mine. The fight card is set to feature the final fight of the MMA career of Brad “One Punch” Pickett. He’s set to face Enrique “Henry Bure” Briones (16-6, MMA; 0-2, UFC) in what is supposed to the last fight of Pickett’s career. The fight card will take place in Pickett’s hometown of London. Despite a very up and down MMA career, the stage is certainly set for the hometown hero to end his MMA career on a high note and give it a storybook ending you rarely see in the sport.

Pickett began his WEC career under the ZUFFA banner in December 2009 at WEC 45. The fairly unknown Pickett faced an also unknown prospect in Kyle Dietz, and Pickett walked away with a victory via a Peruvian necktie in the second round. In his next fight out in the WEC, Pickett would face the one and only Demetrious Johnson. This was Johnson’s WEC debut, which was at bantamweight before Johnson would go on to become the world’s top flyweight and champion in the UFC. It was another dominant performance for Pickett at WEC 48, which marked the WEC’s first and only PPV event; and one of the biggest stages the organization would ever see. With the win, Pickett was booked into a virtual title eliminator against veteran and bantamweight standout Scott Jorgensen, who was in the midst of an impressive winning streak. It was an intense back-and-forth battle and easily Fight of the Night for WEC 50. Unfortunately, Pickett walked away with the first loss of his WEC career. Meanwhile, Jorgensen would get the opportunity to fight Dominick Cruz for the bantamweight title instead. Pickett did manage to end his WEC career on a high note, picking up a win over Ivan Menjivar at the final WEC event, WEC 53 in December 2010. At the very least, Pickett would now have the opportunity to fight in the UFC’s new bantamweight division.

Unfortunately for Pickett, he rolled another tough, surging prospect at UFC 138, where he faced the future UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao. People may have forgotten, but this was a point in his career where Barao was virtually unbeatable and looked like an unstoppable force in the ring. Unfortunately, Pickett came up short again here; often the story of his long career.

Pickett was really one of the workhorses and a high-level gatekeeper for the bantamweight division. While Pickett may never have risen to the contender level, the man was a tough opponent for everyone put in front of him. While many British fighters were known for their lack of grappling skills, Pickett stood out from the pack for showing off some decent grappling skills of his own, having joined a top MMA camp in American Top Team. I attended Pickett’s first WEC fight live, and Pickett always brought a lot of energy and excitement into his performances. Throughout his career, win or lose, he always came to fight and gave everything he had into every performance. A lot of fighters throw around the phrase “leave it all in the cage” so much that it’s ridiculous. Pickett is probably one of the few fighters where such a phrase actually applies. Throughout his UFC and ZUFFA career, Pickett achieved seven Performance or Fight of the Night bonuses. It was symbolic of how if Pickett was fighting on a card, you knew you were in for something special or an exciting contest.

Where Pickett probably made a misstep in terms of his career was probably his move down to flyweight. Johnson, a man Pickett had dominated and beaten before, had managed to become the top flyweight fighter in the world and the UFC champion. Pickett was a standout fighter at bantamweight but had amassed a 3-3 record in the UFC. Flyweight was still a fairly new division and lacking in contenders, so a quicker path to the title likely laid ahead for Pickett at 125 pounds. At UFC Fight Night 37, Pickett was originally scheduled to face flyweight contender Ian McCall. However, McCall was forced to withdraw at the last minute, and instead Pickett faced the debuting Neil Seery.

While Pickett was successful in his flyweight debut, it didn’t look like a very advantageous weight cut. So often do fighters make the mistake as being as big and heavy as possible for their weight class. Instead, cutting so much weight for a fight is often detrimental to a fighter’s performance, rather than enhancing it. Pickett one such case. He was already fairly lean and muscular at bantamweight. At flyweight, he simply looked slower. While he often had sharp boxing, Picket’s weapons and tools seemed rather dull at flyweight. Unfortunately, it was a lesson he learned the hard way after dropping close decisions to Ian McCall and Chico Camus. It wasn’t as if Pickett was destroyed by these opponents. It simply looked like a matter of the weight cut zapping his speed and strength.

Since moving back to bantamweight, a now older and battle-worn Pickett would end up going 1-3. He lost to the surging contender and knockout artist, Thomas Almeida, pulled off a close split decision to Francisco Rivera for his last win, lost by submission to Iuri Alcantara, and then lost a decision to Urijah Faber in Faber’s retirement fight. Faber’s win over Pickett was an academic and dominant decision, but Pickett showed some of his legendary toughness in surviving quite the onslaught from Faber early on.

Despite the recent disappointments, Pickett has one last chance to end his MMA career on a high by fighting in London in a couple months. Win or lose, Pickett has always been a favorite of mine with his unique style, incredible toughness and unbelievable tenacity. Pickett never made it to the elite contender level, but other fighters who did make it to that level had to do so by getting in the Octagon with One Punch, including the likes of Renan Barao, Scott Jorgensen, Demetrious Johnson, Michael McDonald, and Eddie Wineland, all who have been UFC or WEC champion or title contenders. Pickett may never have became champion in WEC or UFC, but he was a fighter through and through. He routinely would take part in the best or most exciting fights of the night for some memorable MMA cards. Considering the pain and damage fighters have to put themselves through in order to compete at such a high level, for that, Pickett deserves all the respect in the world. The man always fought his heart out. In case you wonder why they call him One Punch, look no further than his fight with Yves Jabouin.

Jeffrey Harris is 411mania’s resident Jack of All Trades and has covered MMA for the site since 2008. You can shoot him an e-mail at [email protected] or hit him up on Facebook. He also co-hosts the 411 Ground & Pound Radio podcast along with Robert Winfree. You can listen to the latest episode of the podcast in the player below.