Brad Pickett didn’t get the storybook ending to his career that he wanted at UFC Fight Night 107 as Marlon Vera clobbered him with a head kick on route to a TKO win.
Vera now feels like the momentum of that win will carry him to bigger things in the UFC.
“I was really looking forward to my first winning streak in the UFC,” Vera said to MMA Junkie. “I wasn’t able to do it before. A lot of things happened, I won’t put excuses, the fights I lost, I lost. It’s already in the past. But now, this is a new beginning, this is a new me. I’m with a really good team in California, Team Oyama, also with 10th Planet (Jiu-Jitsu). So I feel this is a new me, this is the real fighter I am. So I’m down for whatever is next.”
The fighter has now earned a total of three wins in his five UFC bouts.Even with the highlight reel finish, the victorious Vera admits the fight was a hard one to win.
“The fight was really hard,” Vera said. “I was trying to throw everything, but it was short notice so I wasn’t able to plan too much. We planned the striking and we planned if the fight goes to the ground to do the jiu-jitsu. But he was really strong on the wrestling.”
Marlon took the fight on a week’s notice after Henry Briones pulled out of the fight due to injury.
