UFC Fight Night 107 results: Marlon Vera stuns Brad Pickett late to spoil retirement fight

LONDON – Brad Pickett seemed to be heading toward a win over Marlon Vera in what he promised would be the final fight of his career.

Then with a little more than a minute left in the fight, a head kick from Vera (9-3-1 MMA, 3-2 UFC) put Pickett (25-14 MMA, 5-9 UFC) on his back, and a couple follow-up hammerfists finished the job. At the 3:50 mark of Round 3, referee Grant Waterman stepped in to call it off, much to the dismay of the departing Pickett.

The 140-pound catchweight bout was part of the main card of today’s UFC Fight Night 107 event at The O2 in London. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass.

Pickett found early success in this fight by bulling his way in with power punching combinations, then looking for takedowns once he had Vera trapped against the fence. Those takedowns were largely successful, resulting in a big slam early in the first and some efficient ground-and-pound in the second.

While he occasionally found himself threatened by the counter knees and high kicks of Vera as he came dipping in low to get into his punching range, Pickett seemed to be clearly in control and likely ahead on the scorecards as time wound down in the final round.

That’s when one well-placed head kick from Vera changed everything, with the bone of his feet reverberating off the skull of Pickett and dropping him to the floor. Picket was clearly woozy as Vera came in to finish, landing two solid hammerfists on the undefended face of Pickett.

Still, Picket had just started to kick Vera away when Waterman stepped in to stop it, prompting Pickett to leap to his feet (somewhat wobbily) in complaint.

For Vera, the win makes it two straight in the UFC. The loss in his retirement fight is the third straight for Pickett, who finishes his career having lost six of his last seven.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 107 results include:

• Marlon Vera def. Brad Pickett via knockout (head kick, punches) – Round 3, 3:50
• Arnold Allen def. Makwan Amirkhani via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 30-27)
• Joseph Duffy vs. Reza Madadi via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Francimar Barroso def. Darren Stewart via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Timothy Johnson def. Daniel Omielanczuk via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)
• Leon Edwards def. Vicente Luque via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Marc Diakiese def. Teemu Packalen via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 0:30
• Brad Scott def. Scott Askham via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
• Lina Lansberg def. Lucie Pudilova via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 107, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Simon Head contributed to this report on site in London.)