Brad Pickett discusses KO loss: ‘The younger me would’ve chewed that [kick] up’

Last night, on the main card of the UFC’s latest trip to London, UK MMA legend Brad Pickett stepped onto the canvas for a final time. His opponent in this retirement fight was late-replacement Marlon “Chito” Vera, a young but dangerous out for pretty much any fighter in the division. Though Pickett won the first two rounds of the fight, and seemed to be in control heading into the third, his retirement fight was ultimately spoiled by a beautiful, late-fight head-kick from the young Vera.

In the wake of this fight, Pickett joined the media for a short press conference to discuss his failed retirement fight, sharing his belief that, were he a little younger, he would have absorbed Vera’s fight-ending strike without issue.

“I was winning the fight for 14 minutes, and then I got a head kick where, to be honest, the younger me would have chewed that up and carried on going,” Pickett said (via MMAJunkie.com). “It’s definitely the right decision (to retire).”

“Obviously, it’s not the fairytale ending that myself and probably everyone else wanted,” he continued. 

Pickett then touched on the fact that, if he had relied more heavily on his wrestling, he might have been able to produce the win. According to the UK pioneer, however, that’s just not his style.

“It’s me – my fighting style,” he said. “I live by the sword, die by the sword. I say I fight for the fans.

“I did have some trouble taking him down when I went for a takedown, but I could have just taken him down and laid on him and made it boring,” he continued. “But for me, I wanted to be in a typical Brad Pickett fight. And in a typical Brad Pickett fight, it would’ve been me getting up and carrying on fighting [after the kick].”

Do you think Brad Pickett should have been allowed to keep fighting after Vera’s head-kick landed? Sound off, PENN Nation!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/19/2017.