Exclusive Q&A: Brad Pickett says Nathaniel Wood 'needs to rise up and fight some top-15 opponents'

Retired bantamweight Brad Pickett was at UFC London in the corner of Lone'er Kavanagh and Nathaniel Wood. 

DAZN News spoke to the former UFC fighter-turned-coach via NetBet, UFC Betting.

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DAZN News: You are one of the pioneers of British MMA and one of only four fighters to have defeated 'Mighty Mouse' Demetrious Johnson. How do you look back on your career?

Brad Pickett: I always look back on my career in a lot of ways where I'm very proud of what I achieved.

 

I tried my best to be number one in the world, and it wasn't for the lack of trying. I didn't succeed there. I had quite a few title eliminator fights. I got to rank number five in the world, fought a lot of good people, but I had no regrets.

 

So it's a much different time than it is now. It was a very different sport than it is nowadays. There are so many people out there. Back in my day, it wasn't much of a career path like it is now.

 

DN: You retired in 2017 after a loss to Chito Vera. Eight years later, do you miss it, or have you completely moved on?

BP: The fire is there, but nowhere near as burning as it was before.

So obviously, it does diminish a little bit over time. Me, it's like, in my head, I would love to fight. My body is like, "What are you doing?" And I was quite happy with how I left the sport, as a lot of people, when they leave the sport, it's through an injury or they get sacked and that’s it.

Whereas I was like, "I'm done with the sport. I'm happy with what I tried to do." My number one goal was always to try to be number one in the world.

And when it got to the stage where I was losing a few fights, and it didn’t look like I was going to get there, then I was like, "Okay, cool, no worries."

Even though I love competing, I wanted something to compete for, if that makes sense. So if I didn't feel like I was going to get a title shot or get to the title, then I was like, "Okay, cool, I'm done."

So that’s why I retired. I was still a very competitive person, but now I compete for all of my athletes. Now I want my guys to win and do well, so I can compete for them.

For me, it’s a lot harder though, because I’m not in control, they’re in control. I just have to hope they listen, and that the preparation is good for the fights and they do well.

DN: There are a lot of people who say that the UFC was better before. Now you’re in a fighter’s corner. What do you think of that? Is the UFC better now or before?

BP: It's different. As I said, the sport has changed a lot. Before, there weren’t as many fighters in the UFC, so there weren’t as many shows.

You had to wait a few weeks, and then you were excited for the next show. And then you watched that show, you watched it all, you watched every fight, and you got way more invested in those fighters.

But now there’s a show every week. It’s hard to keep track of which show is what, and it makes it a lot harder. So unless you’re an absolute addict and you’re watching every week, it’s hard to keep up with the sport.

There are so many new guys, new gyms, new fighters, and you’re thinking, "Who’s this guy? I’ve never seen this guy before. He’s really good." Like Jean Silva from Fighting Nerds, for instance.

The team Fighting Nerds just came out of nowhere. Where was that four years ago? It wasn’t there. Now you have all these fights. So yeah, the sport’s a lot different than it was back then because there’s a lot more of it.

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DN: Is it better to win as a fighter or as a coach?

BP: It’s rewarding in two different ways. For me, obviously, nothing beats the thrill of winning a fight, so that’s going to top everything, the adrenaline rush and all that stuff, what you put in, yeah, 100%.

But also as a coach, and being a previous fighter, I know how much effort goes into one fight camp and all that stuff. So when the fighter wins, I win with them, and I’m super happy.

But also on the flip side, when they lose, it hurts me a lot as well because I know how much it means.

And this sport is so unforgiving at times. If you win, you go through one door. If you lose, you go through a different door. So I understand this.

I travel the world with my fighters, I’ll do it win or lose. But when they win, the trip is so good, yes. But when they lose, it’s harder, it’s tough. And they feel bad because I give up my time for them.

For me, it doesn’t matter at all. I would always give up my time for my fighters. I always think this, this is one of my things I say: to be a good fighter, you have to be very selfish. To be a good coach, you have to be selfless. I think I’m a very selfless person.

DN: Lerone Murphy won against Josh Emmett. Is it a source of pride for you to see so many English fighters ranked so high today?

BP: Before, back in the day, there were only American and Brazilian champions. That’s it. Now, you have so many different European champions, French champions, English champions, champions around Europe.

You have so many good champions around the world now. It’s not just Brazil and America. So it just shows how much the sport’s grown over the years. Now we have world champions around the world. It’s good, it shows how much the sport is still developing.

DN: Who will be the next English champion?

BP: You’ve got to think the most obvious one who is a champion at the moment, even if interim, is [Tom] Aspinall. But then, do I think he could beat Jon Jones? Honestly, yes and no.

Two things. One, it depends on which Jon Jones turns up. Jon Jones is the GOAT in my eyes, the best fighter to ever do it. But sometimes, when you’re at the top for such a long time like he has been, it’s hard to motivate yourself.

That’s why, to me, the fight with Aspinall, he’s not that motivated for. And that can be a very dangerous thing. So we all see Tom Aspinall, he could knock out anyone.

If he had a fight with an elephant, I reckon he could knock the elephant out. So for me, he’s the closest to it. But we do have other people.

Just like Lerone Murphy had a good win this weekend. But also, I feel the 145-pound division is not as stacked as some other divisions, where obviously now Ilia Topuria, he came, took his belt, and he’s moving to a different weight.

Now you have [Alexander] Volkanovski and Diego Lopes fighting each other for the vacant title. They’re good fighters, but they’re not like Ilia Topuria level. You have a weight class above.

DN: You are also the coach of Lone’er Kavanagh. You were in his corner at UFC London. How good is he?

BP: He's a very, very talented prospect. I've known this kid since he was 14. I've been with him for a long, long time.

He's very, very talented. He's very, very dedicated. Don’t get me wrong, you need a little bit of lady luck here and there in the fighting game, but he has all the tools and all the potential to reach the top of the sport, 100%.

DN: Alexandre Pantoja said that there are a lot of fighters, and everyone has a chance. Kavanagh is a huge British prospect. Can he become a champion?

BP: 100%. I’d say he’s still young within the sport, young within the UFC, still undefeated.

For me, being undefeated doesn’t really mean that much nowadays, but he’s ever-improving. Some people have a ceiling.

I think he has a much higher ceiling. He’s still improving. He’s still in the gym every day. He’s in the gym again today. He’s in the gym every day, getting better and always improving.

So I do believe, obviously, a bit of luck here and there is needed, but I think he has all the tools to be number one in the world.

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DN: You also coach Nathaniel Wood. Morgan Charrière was no easy opponent. Yet, Wood seemed to make the fight look easy. How did he do it?

BP: That’s the thing with Nathaniel. People probably didn’t give him much credit.

If you know the sport and you know how good Morgan Charrière is, what Nathaniel did is remarkable. It shows how he can make such a good fighter look so ordinary.

And that’s how dangerous Nathaniel’s striking is. He’s so fast, so quick. He hurt Morgan early in the first round. And then Morgan, even though being two rounds down in the third round, was still on his back foot.

He didn’t really want to come forward and try to commit to Nathaniel because Nathaniel was so quick and accurate with his shots.

So for me, I think it was a world-class performance. He looked so good. I think he’s someone who definitely now needs to rise up and fight some top-15 opponents, 100%.

DN: Who do you want Wood to face next?

BP: I don’t know. I know someone like Bryce Mitchell (against Jean Silva at UFC 314) is fighting this weekend.

I know Josh Emmett just fought last weekend. So someone like them. I think he’s in that conversation. I think he needs to fight someone along those lines to see where he’s at.

DN: Leon Edwards was in the main event at UFC London, yet he was completely outclassed without any controversy. How do you explain this loss?

BP: To me, I was on Leon Edwards’ side. His last fight against Belal [Muhammad], he looked very slow, lethargic.

And I blamed it because I had fought that time before years ago. And I’m like, "So that’s the reason why he was off." But against Sean Brady, he has no excuses now.

And so that’s a real tough spot for him to be in now as a fighter, being number one and then losing back to back.

I still think he’s a very, very talented fighter, and he’s still young. He still has a lot left to give. But yeah, he just maybe needs to change things up here and there within his camp.

Maybe go somewhere else to train, go out to America, go somewhere, just change things up a little bit, because he’s still a very talented fighter.