UFC signs Neil Seery to fight Brad Pickett at UFC Fight Night London

I think it's safe to say that Seery's early MMA career wasn't exactly soemthing to write home about. Through the first 5+ years of his career he went 7-8 fighting on the UK/Irish regional scene at 165 lbs. Five of those losses were stoppage losses (although none came by knockout). Recently, however, the narrative has changed. Over the past 3 years Seery has gone 6-1 to bring his overall career record to 13-9 and capture the CWFC flyweight title in the process. Now, the UFC has announced that he will be filling in for the injured Ian McCall against Brad Pickett at UFC Fight Night London, on March 8th.

The 34-year-old Seery makes his way to the UFC fighting out of Team Ryano MMA in his native Ireland. A former karateka and kick boxer, Seery has been competing in MMA since 2005. In that time he's faced a number of talented fighters, including Paul McVeigh, James Doolan, and current UFC flyweight Phil Harris. In general, while not overflowing with big name fights and victories, his record is somewhat understated in it's quality. Even on the often underwhelming European regional scene, Seery has faced mostly decent veteran fighters.

Watching Seery fight, his boxing skill is obviously his hallmark. He throws well in combination with speed and power and in truth, I'd say that his boxing makes up about 80% of what he's looking to do in the cage. He has a powerful, accurate kicking game to go with it, but it's not something that he deploys with any regularity. Often opting for one-off kicks only as his opponent is backing away. Defensively Seery seems to be a tale of engagement. He moves his head well and feet well while striking, just not consistently. Sometime's he'll wade in and leave himself open to be taken down, or sometimes he seems to stiffen up and let himself be caught with lunging strikes. When he's on point he's defensively solid, but it seems to come and go. As a total package he reminds me a bit of Eddie Wineland, but with less of the freakish athleticism that lets Wineland ply his boxing heavy style.

What all of this means is that Pickett is a pretty bad matchup for Seery overall. Seery might win the strike-for-strike contest, but I don't know that he'll dominate Pickett there. And Pickett's offensive wrestling and grappling are just at a much higher level. Seery is a fun, action fighter and I don't doubt that he'll put on some exciting fights in the UFC. But I don't see him hanging with the top half of the division.

To get us better acquainted, take a look at Seery's most recent fight against Mikael Silander for the CWFC flyweight title: