Current UFC bantamweight Brad Pickett believes that the current UFC interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao is not that much more talented that he is, and he would fight him differently if the two meet again.

The two top ranked fighters first met in Pickett's UFC debut at UFC 138 inside the LG Arena in Birmingham, England.

After an exciting first few minutes the fast paced bantamweights went toe-to-toe, Barao landed a vicious standing knee to Pickett's face which visibly wobbled the Brit. Barao then followed up with a flurry of punches that dropped the Pickett to the ground. The Nova União Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt quickly took his back, and sunk in a rear naked choke which forced the tap in the closing minutes of the first round.

Following the fight, many felt that Pickett was dominated by the interim champion, but Pickett believes that bad strategy is the main reason for his difficult showing.

"I am very competitive, so every defeat is hard," Brad Pickett told Tatame. "This was horrible because it was in my house and in my debut. I did not like having lost that fight. I don't think Renan Barão far better than me, but he won that night. When you fight with the best in the world, it just takes one mistake to lose. I thought he would surrender to pressure, but if we fought again I would not make this mistake again."

After his difficult loss to Barao at UFC 138, Pickett believed that he needed an impressive performance inside the Octagon in his next fight.

That fight came at UFC Sweden where Pickett faced dangerous veteran Damacio Page.

"There was a lot of pressure on top of me before that fight due to the defeat to Barao," Pickett said. "I could not let the same thing happen again, knowing that Page was a hard opponent. I had to deal with the situation and not lose a second straight time. I won and I was very happy and relieved."