A strange, complicated week for the UFC's flyweight division

(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

DUBLIN – It may be slightly harsh to say the UFC’s flyweight division is in a state of disarray.

Things at least are consistent at the top of the leading MMA promotion’s smallest men’s weight class, with champion Demetrious Johnson (20-2-1 MMA, 8-1-1 UFC) holding sway now for four straight title defenses.

Johnson will turn around quickly after a dominant five-round decision win over Ali Bagautinov a month ago to defend his belt in the UFC 177 pay-per-view co-headliner on Aug. 30 against Chris Cariaso (17-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC) – a decision that took many in the sport by surprise.

That’s where that state of disarray comes into play, at least if you ask a pair of flyweights on the main card of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 46 event, which takes place in Dublin (UFC Fight Pass, 3 p.m. ET).

London’s Brad Pickett (24-8 MMA, 4-3 UFC) meets Californian Ian McCall (12-4-1 MMA, 1-2-1 UFC) in what remains an important fight in the flyweight division – but one Pickett says should have had more on the line. In particular, Pickett was a little irked the UFC didn’t wait until it saw his fight with McCall before deciding to put Cariaso in against Johnson as the division’s next challenger.

“When I look at my fight with Ian McCall, he had a fight with Demetrious Johnson (in 2012) that I believe he won, and I beat Demetrious Johnson (at bantamweight in 2010),” Pickett says. “So I think the winner of this fight made sense. But I don’t make those decisions. All I can do is win Saturday and put myself in a good position.”

In the latest USA TODAY/MMAjunkie MMA flyweight rankings, McCall and Pickett are ranked No. 4 and 5, while Cariaso is No. 11. No. 2-ranked John Dodson was expected to get another shot at Johnson, but he’s out for a year with a knee injury, and No. 3 Joseph Benavidez has a pair of losses to the champ.

No. 9 John Lineker picked up a win Wednesday night in Atlantic City and said he wants to be considered for the title – on a one-fight winning streak.

Pickett and McCall being passed over for Cariaso, who has a three-fight winning streak, is understandable if the UFC really needed to get Johnson booked again. But now Pickett is just in a position to win and hope for the best – with a belief that he’ll ultimately get to fight Johnson again and take his title.

“I just feel a little bit like my and Ian’s fight is kind of under the radar a little bit,” Pickett says. “I truly believe that I’m going to be the first UFC European champion. I truly believe that. Ian McCall’s in my way on Saturday. I’ll get my job done Saturday and then go on to Demetrious. If it has to wait a little longer than I would like to, so be it.”

Perhaps it’s the laid-back Californian in him, but McCall seems more low-key about Saturday’s stakes.

He was supposed to fight Pickett in London in March before an injury knocked him off the card. He had talked a big game before the injury, and he kept talking after it, as well. Pickett admits it annoyed him.

McCall isn’t talking about getting title shots, but he may take Pickett’s aggravation with his pre-fight talk as the first step toward spoiling his opponent’s title hopes.

“I guess you’d call it a moral victory (if I got in his head),” McCall says. “I was having fun, and he got his feelings hurt. It happens.”

The Pickett-McCall winner isn’t guaranteed anything, other than a chance to stay in contention in a strangely muddled pack. Until Cariaso wraps up his shot at Johnson, that may have to be good enough.

For more on UFC Fight Night 46, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Brad Pickett)