By Michael Owens
Brad Pickett’s spot on the UFC Fight Night card in London was uncertain after Ian McCall pulled out, but the UFC has found him a late replacement. What will that do to his title chances?
‘One Punch’s’ new opponent is Irish veteran Neil Seery. The 34-year-old carries a 13-9 record into his Octagon debut, but don’t let that cloud your judgement about his abi. He has been in resurgent form as a flyweight. He captured Cage Warriors 125 pound gold in June against Mikael Silander. As the promotion’s inaugural champion in that division he was due to make his first defence against Ulysses Gomez a couple of months ago in Newcastle but that fight was scrapped when Gomez had some extreme difficulty making weight. Despite that setback, Seery should enter the cage early next month full of confidence on a four-fight win streak, with six wins in his last seven since November 2010.
It’s a tough test for the UFC and WEC standout Pickett (pictured), but one he will still be favoured in. Furthermore, he’ll be more strongly favoured than he might have been against former #1-ranked flyweight McCall.
The issue for the four time fight of the night winner is how far a win will push him in his new division. Pickett would have been primed for a title shot against Demetrious Johnson with a win over ‘Uncle Creepy’. He has a lot going for him in this weight class, which – let’s not forget – is still developing and suffers slightly from a lack of depth. Pickett is popular, exciting, easy to promote and he has a win over the current champ from back in the WEC bantamweight days. Add a win over a highly ranked fighter and all roads would have led to a shot at the belt – possibly back in the UK later in 2014. Will a win against a relative unknown do the same?
Luckily for him, a win on March 8 should still see him get that push. A new opponent only takes away one of those positives and there will still be an absence of obvious challengers for the belt seeing as Benavidez, Dodson and Moraga have all been defeated. Considering it would also take a very brave gambler to bet against this scrap being anything less than thrilling, Pickett could have yet another string added to his bow by the time it comes to figuring out who’s next for DJ.
Of course, ‘2 Tap’ Seery will be looking to throw a serious spanner into those works in three weeks’ time.
The full fight card for UFC Fight Night 37 at the O2 Arena now looks like this:
Main Card
Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jimi Manuwa
Melvin Guillard vs. Michael Johnson
Brad Pickett vs. Neil Seery
Omari Akhmedov vs. Gunnar Nelson
Prelims
Cyrille Diabate vs. Ilir Latifi
Luke Barnatt vs. Mats Nilsson
Brad Scott vs. Claudio Henrique da Silva
Roland Delorme vs. Davey Grant
Igor Araujo vs. Danny Mitchell
Louis Gaudinot vs. Phil Harris
Photo; Mark Blundell
