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Brad Pickett has had a long UFC career but knows it is time to hang up the gloves
And he is more than willing to admit it. When I wander into Titan Fighter Gym in north London, I am first greeted by Bonnie – Pickett’s dog. This blonde puff of fluff is hardly a guard dog though and after a brief introduction the one-year-old cockapoo hops onto the sofa next to her master.
I perch slightly precariously next to her on the edge of my seat while the man nicknamed One Punch, relaxing in a jumper, a beanie hat and a pair of gym leggings, reclines next to us.
“Having a dog breaks the mould,” Pickett tells me.
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Brad Pickett is not everything you expected a mixed martial artist to be
“That’s what I like about it.
“I’m not a stereotypical fighter.
“A fighter is a guy who’s [ste]roided up, a skinhead covered in tattoos.
“I don’t have any of that ink.
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Brad Pickett is known for wearing his hat on the way in and out of the Octagon
“You don’t see stickers on a Bentley, do you?”
Pickett is perhaps more a classic Mini than a Bentley given his 5ft 6in frame, although like his four-wheeled counterpart, he has moved to stay with the times.
“My training mixes the old-fashioned stuff with the new sports science,” he admits.
“You have to evolve, even in your technique.
“There are techniques I used to do back in the day that you wouldn’t try in a million years now because you’d get beaten or make yourself vulnerable.
“You have to learn.
“I’m not stupid enough to be that guy who is stuck in my ways.”
And most recently, Pickett has had to learn to lose. Five defeats in his last six has left the 38-year-old with an overall record of 25-13. He is still an impressive fighter, but he knows the race is run. He doesn’t want to outstay his 13-year welcome in MMA.
“The defeats really hurt now,” he says.
“I owe it to myself not to just hang around and get beaten for the sake of it.
“I’m not here to make up the numbers.
“If I still felt that I could really compete at the highest level and win the belt or something I’d fight on. But realistically, I can’t.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow. It’s a hard thing to admit but you have to sometimes.”
He will take to the Octagon one more time, at UFC Fight Night 107 in London. Pickett was realistically never going to retire anywhere else.
Born in Bow, he didn’t grow up with aspirations of a professional MMA career. A life-long Tottenham fan, he was chasing the football dream, playing right-back for Rushden and Diamonds reserves, before a major knee injury forced him to look elsewhere to get his sporting fix.
“I did always think MMA itself would be the No 1 combat sport one day,” Pickett says.
“I never thought it would be within my lifetime, never mind my career, but I think it’s surpassed boxing now.
“It’s crazy to think that it wasn’t a career path when I started fighting.
“It just ballooned up into this thing.
“Now a young athlete can come into the gym and say ‘I want to be a UFC fighter’.
“Before a youngster might go and play football, rugby or other sports, now this is a different option for them.”
Pickett fought in Cage Rage events around the UK before joining UFC-owned WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting) in the US, eventually graduating to UFC in November 2011.
“On my UFC debut, I was super pumped. That day I had to reel myself back a little bit,” Picket admits.
“Emotion is a good thing but you’ve got to not let it control anything you do.
“You still need a clear mind.”
Pickett’s emotional side is clear for all to see. He has no ego to speak of – although he admits recent losses have hurt his pride – and when I pause to make a note of something or just to check where I am in my questions, he too pauses. He seems to want to meet my eye and connect with me on a human level.
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The O2 Arena will play host to Brad Pickett’s final appearances as a professional MMA fighter
It is refreshing, even if it does make it difficult for me to read my notes.
While his humanity is not new in his life, someone else is. He has a one-year-old old son now, an arrival which he admits without sounding cliched changed his perspective on life.
“When you have a son it’s not just about you any more,” Pickett says.
“Being a fighter, it’s a selfish life.
“You have to look after yourself and no-one cares about you more than you.
“But now, I don’t care about me as much as I care about my son.
“I need to put food on the table for him.
“I’m going to open my own gym and coach.
“Teaching other people would be my natural path, working with younger athletes.”
Were I a young man or woman trying to make my way in MMA, I can see why Pickett would appeal as a coach. He has broad experience in MMA on both sides of the Atlantic and takes a more measured approach to the sport that others might not.
“A wise man learns from his mistakes,” Pickett says.
“A wiser man learns from the mistake of others. You don’t actually have to make the mistake to learn the lesson.”
While the thought might not be new, this is not 50p philosophy that you might find emblazoned on a t-shirt on Oxford Street or printed on a poster sold in a students’ union. This is Pickett’s mantra, gleaned from years of graft and battle.
In the end, we hardly talk about fighting at all. There are questions on my pad about striking and takedowns that seem inappropriate. It is easy to forget that Pickett’s living is derived from what at first glance might seem like a fairly brutal evening’s work.
But he actually claims that his football career was more dangerous than his cage fighting.
“I got more injured playing football. I’ve got a bit of a quad strain at the moment,” he says, massaging his right thigh with a grimace.
“I got it kicking a football around at a media event after a sparring session.
“Uneducated people see guys fighting each other and when someone is cut, it’s ‘Oh my god! Someone’s dying! There’s blood everywhere!’
“But it’s such a superficial injury that a couple of stitches and days later it’s gone.
“This strain is probably going to last me over a week.
“If you tear a muscle or do your ACL, you’re out for a long time.”
On March 18, Pickett will enter the Octagon for the last time – although he knows he won’t land far from it.
“MMA has been such a big part of my life. It will be an emotional occasion,” he says.
Perhaps not many of the UFC fans at the O2 Arena on the night will appreciate Pickett’s work. They’ll see him win or lose and hang up the 4oz gloves either way.
But he will have bared his soul, having rushed in there with every muscle and sinew straining for victory. There is no doubting how hard he will find it to walk away.
