Brad Pickett Set to Make His Long Awaited UFC Debut

Former WEC and Cage Rage standout Brad Pickett will be stepping into the Octagon for the first time at UFC 138 this Saturday night in Birmingham, England. The last time we saw the gentleman they call “One Punch” (who was originally scheduled to fight at UFC 130 in May) he fought himself to a unanimous decision victory over Ivan Menjivar as a part of the final WEC show. After sitting out for nearly a year due to injury Pickett is finally ready to put a much-needed jolt into the UFC Bantamweight division.

His opponent, 24-year-old Renan Barao  made his UFC debut at the same event Pickett was scheduled to fight in this past May. The Shooto Brazil mastermind extended his win streak to an unheard of 26 when he defeated Cole Escovedo via unanimous decision. When Pickett fell off the card due to injury, Barao moved from his fight against Demetrious Johnson and was given Escovedo. “Mighty Mouse” went on to face Torres and earn himself a shot against current division title holder Dominick Cruz. Now we have a situation where Barao will have the pleasure of welcoming his opponent to the promotion on Pickett’s home turf. An impressive win by either puts them right into contender status along with Brian Bowles and Urijah Faber who will meet later this month in San Jose.

Now back to Pickett. Pickett’s fight of the night performance against Scott “Young Guns” Jorgensen really made such a big impression on me that I can’t even recall his most recent fight against Menjivar. Maybe it was because it was replayed on Versus repeatedly during the months following. Jorgensen took the fight 30-27 on all three of the judges scorecards due to  a higher volume of significant and total strikes almost doubling Pickett in every category. For all three of those rounds though one got the feeling that Pickett was always the more dangerous fighter, he’s that  guy who is always just  “One Punch” away from ending it on any given Saturday Night. That loss to Jorgensen delayed the red-hot Pickett, who was coming off of a victory over Demetrious Johnson just months prior, from getting his own shot at Cruz.

You can catch the Co Main Event of the evening between Brad Pickett (21-4) and Renan Barao (26-1) via tape delay on Spike TV at 8 PM ET/PT.

Tags: brad Pickett, Mixed Martial Arts, MMA, One Punch, Renan Barao, UFC, UFC 138, WEC

Category: Exclusive, MMA, UFC