Fresh off his Knockout of the Night-winning performance against Yves Jabouin at UFC on Fuel TV 5, bantamweight Brad Pickett said yesterday that he’d like to fight one of the division’s fastest-rising stars: Michael McDonald.
“To be honest, I’d really like to fight Michael McDonald,” Pickett told alpha-reporter Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour radio show. “I never, ever, ever call anyone out and even now I’m not calling him out. It’s just a fight for me I really like. We both like to throw bombs. He’s knocked some people out, I can knock people out. He’s ranked above me and that’s where I want to go.”
According to Bleacher Report’s rankings for the month of October, Pickett is the world’s seventh-best bantamweight; McDonald is ranked fourth.
McDonald, 21, is currently on an eight-fight win streak. He is 15-1 overall and 4-0 in the UFC. Though he was a candidate to fight Urijah Faber for the interim bantamweight title, Renan Barao ultimately got the nod and won the fight. As Barao waits for champ Dominick Cruz to return from injury, McDonald is moldering on the shelf.
A fight with Pickett would pit two hard-hitting finishers against each other. Though Pickett would probably need more than one more win to earn a title shot, McDonald could receive a shot after defeating Pickett, a tough customer who is on a two-fight win streak and has received a post-fight bonus in all three of his bouts in the UFC.
With both men available, and at least one of them willing, this is a fight the UFC should book, perhaps for their blockbuster UFC 155 end-of-year card, or as a main event to an upcoming Fuel TV or FX event. Though the promotion may understandably be playing it safe with their young asset, McDonald certainly serves the UFC better when he is fighting, and doing so against a popular, exciting and streaking opponent in Pickett.
Follow Scott Harris on Twitter.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com