UFC vet Brad Pickett talks "f***ing weird" training with Colby Covington at ATT -

British veteran Brad Pickett recently opened up about goings-on at American Top Team, Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal and much more.

When it comes to British pioneers of MMA, one would be hard pressed to forget Brad Pickett. The English bantamweight is a former Cage Rage and UCMMA champion, competed in the WEC, and signed with the UFC in 2012. While he would go on to have mixed results in the UFC, he faced legendary fighters like Renan Barao and Urijah Faber.

Pickett has been affiliated with American Top Team (ATT) for many years, and recently joined Jim Edwards’ podcast, revealing interesting details about the gym. Team mates Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington have been at each others throats, with many wondering if their feud will boil over at ATT. However, Pickett saits there’s little risk of that happening.

“They don’t train together,” Pickett said. “Colby mainly trains behind closed doors in a separate gym and not on open mat. You got to remember it’s a massive gym and there are so many hours in the day. They just pick their own hours and they train out the back and that sort of thing… I still find it all really fucking weird.”

2019 was a fantastic year for Masvidal. He lined up three straight T/KO wins over great welterweight competition. However Pickett feels that Masvidal is still the same person, but that everything fell into place following a stint on a South American reality show.

“The thing is he’s not changed,” Pickett said. “He’s always been one of the most skilful guys I’ve ever known. He has so many weapons and he’s like a Swiss army knife of abilities. The thing is he didn’t take it seriously. He’d go eat Taco Bell and then party in Miami; he just didn’t care.

“Then he went on a reality show in South America and they took away his phone, he just had a little bit of an epiphany and thought to himself ‘what am I doing with my life?’ He then though ‘Hey, I might take this shit seriously’ and then what happened, happened with Darren Till and he realised he’s pretty good at it. He’s always been so good and it just took for him to have that self-belief and to be doing the right things. I’m so happy for him to get what I believe is what he deserves in this sport.”

Masvidal will be the next to challenge welterweight champion Kamaru Usman for the title. Despite Masvidal’s success so far, it’s seen as quite the though task. Usman has a grinding, overwhelming wrestling style that has been something of a kryptonite for Masvidal so far. However, Pickett is convinced that Masvidal can pull off the win.

“Yeah, I do,” Pickett said when asked if he can beat Usman. “It’s not an easy task because Usman is stylistically the worst matchup for anyone in the world. If people know Masvidal though, then you’d know he has great wrestling defense. He’s been a training partner of Colby Covington for many years so he’s learned some stuff. He doesn’t use his wrestling offensively that much, but his defense is excellent.

“Like Khabib, [with Usman] you got to stop him getting hold of you which makes it interesting. Usman’s hands looked good against Colby as well, but yeah, what everyone doesn’t understand is what a dangerous fight Masvidal is. He’s such an abundance of weapons and ways he can win a fight.”

The full podcast with Brad Pickett can be listened to above.