Drew Fickett was wrestling at a community college in Tucson, Arizona when he became interested in MMA. During college Drew was injured in major car accident while riding his motorcycle. “I was hit by a truck and broke my knee and two bones in my foot…I spent like four years practicing in college, but I never really got to compete too much because of injury, and the lack of a red shirt I got.” He added, “I couldn’t do anything for like a year. I mean I still tried to lift, but obviously I couldn’t lift my lower body.”
Drew fought MMA before attending college. He commented, “Well I had been fighting in like Rage in the Cage when I first started. You know beating up a bunch of bums. After my injury I decided to, you know, jump right back into a fight, and I trained. That was actually the first time I fought Edwin Dewees was like right after a year of healing up and stuff.”
Drew made his UFC debut at UFC 51, in a losing effort against Nick Diaz. A jump to a big show, like UFC was a bit overwhelming to a young fighter. About his loosing effort against Diaz, Fickett said, “I just thank Nick for basically fighting me, and giving the opportunity for me to fight a worthy opponent my first fight. It’s not like he was some bum. You know? I really don’t know if I could have beat anybody that night. Not taking anything away from Nick because he’s an excellent fighter.”
Drew added, “I mean it’s one thing to fight in another show, and it’s one thing to fight in the UFC. At the time I had like 26 fights. I thought I was a much more experienced person, and it was actually quite the opposite. I mean I felt like it was my first fight ever. I was, I hate to admit it, but I was in tears the morning of the fight. I was so nervous, and obviously any fighter knows you’re not afraid of any opponent. It’s just the fear of competition, and I couldn’t handle the whole UFC, the lights, miking up my corner man, all the cameras, and pictures, and all that jazz. It was just too much for me, and I just froze.”
After the Diaz fight, Drew was set to take on the very tough and battle tested Brandon Melendez. A couple weeks before the Melendez fight, Drew was attending a small show in AZ as a fan. Apparently Robert Briggs�f opponent dropped out last minute and, in need of an opponent last minute, he suggested Fickett jump in as a replacement. Being the gamer that he is, Fickett accepted the challenge on about 20 minutes notice, pounded a couple hot dogs, jumped some rope and went to the ring and flat out dominated. Between rounds Briggs’ corner threw in the towel.
Drew then made his way to CO for the Melendez fight. Drew again looked good, ending this fight in 2:27 of round one, winning by RNC.
After two fights in smaller shows, the UFC came calling when they needed a replacement to fight Josh Neer. Drew jumped at the chance and truly made the most of it, choking the highly touted new comer out cold in 1:35 of round one, again by RNC.
Drew’s next fight was his first main card fight in the UFC and was against the undefeated wrestling phenom from TUF season 1, Josh Koscheck. Koscheck controlled the action for the first two rounds and though Fickett was active from the bottom, he was clearly behind in the score cards. Round three was more of the same, with Koscheck controlling Fickett but not doing a ton of damage. With less than a minute to go in the fight, they were stood up due to a lack of action, and that was exactly the opportunity Fickett was looking for. As Koscheck shot, Drew threw a perfectly timed knee that floored Koscheck, and as he tried to get back to his feet, Drew jumped on his back, set the hooks and choked him unconscious with only 22 seconds left in the fight.
Drew then came in the favorite against yet another TUF veteran, Josh Burkman. Unfortunately for Drew this was not his night, and he found himself stuck in a tight guillotine early in the fight and was forced to tap out at 1:07 of round 1.
In his next fight, Drew was matched up with BJJ black belt and wrestling expert Kurt “Batman” Pellegrino. This fight was a war from start to finish, and Fickett again found himself in a very close fight going into round three. After a takedown from Pellegrino, Fickett was on the bottom side mounted by the ground specialist. Fickett pushed the action from the bottom, forced a scramble and took Pellegrinos back. He quickly set the hooks and finished the fight via RNC at 1:20 of round 3.
From there Fickett faced his toughest opponent yet when he took on former #1 contender Karo Parisyan. Many expected a very technical fight that spent most of the time on the mat. Both Karo and Drew were content to keep it standing for most of the fight, but also did their share of work on the ground. The fight was an absolute war that saw both guys land some shots standing up, as well as dish out a ton of punches and elbows on the ground. In a fight that saw both fighters bloody and battered, in the end it was Karo’s fight. Karo was awarded a unanimous decision in a fight that the UFC deemed “Fight of the Night.”
After his fight of the night with Karo he strung together a five win streak ending those fights with four chokes and 1 decision. The wins were over Keita Nakamura, Anthony Lapsley, Mark Weir, Jae Suk Lim , and Jeff Horlacher. From there he fought in New Mexico and received an illegal knee and the ref called an early stoppage. The formal protest is with the NMSAC and we are awaiting the results. Drew bounced right back and choked out Joe Manzello in the first round at Silver Crown fights in Ft. Wayne, Illinois the very next weekend!