Tom Picciano predicting one key change at CFFC 112: 'I'm going to whoop his ass, but it's going to just look cooler'

If you needed one word to describe Tom Picciano's professional MMA debut, "hectic" is certainly an apt choice.

Yes, "Pooch" walked away with a first-round TKO win, but not before he found himself in peril on more than one occasion, as well. Clipped on the feet early, Picciano was then forced to fight off a handful of very threatening choke attempts before finally working to a dominant position and pounding away with punches to get the stoppage, ending one of the craziest one-round fights in recent memory.

"Honestly, I was a little disappointed with how hectic it got, but I got the win," Picciano said. "I got the first-round finish like I wanted, but it's definitely not how I pictured it was going down. We didn't expect to have to lift somebody up – hanging off my neck – to get the 'W,' but, you know, you've got to do what you've got to do sometimes."

In retrospect, Picciano realizes that he didn't need to attack at such a frantic pace. The 24-year-old featherweight prospect believes he just needed the experience of competing in a five-minute round to fully comprehend the difference with the shorter frames of the amateur ranks.

"I was used to the three-minute rounds, so usually I was just trying to get going and going and going, like just get the fight on, because that's two less minutes per round," Picciano said. "You don't really have that feeling out process too much in the amateur fights, and you know, that was working for me, but that was my pro debut and first time with the five-minute rounds for real. I sparred with them in preparation, but you can do all the sparring in the world. Once you get out there, everybody's watching, and it's like a different kind of feel."

Picciano (1-0) will get to experience that feeling once again on Friday, Aug. 26, when he takes on Elijah Humes (1-0) on the main card of CFFC 112, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from Philadelphia's 2300 Arena. It's been five months since that debut appearance, and Picciano said he's stayed in the gym the entire time and believes his performance will reflect his efforts.

"I stay in camp all year round," Picciano said. "I'm always in the gym, always training eight hours a day, 10 hours a day. This is really what I do. This is what I'm about, and my fight, I wanted to show that, so that's why I said I was a little disappointed how it looked because I'm definitely better than that, for sure. I know for a fact this fight you'll definitely see a little bit better version of me."

In Humes, Picciano faces a man who also won his professional debut. Coincidentally, both fighters also had 6-1 amateur records, each finishing those runs on a five-fight win streak. However, Picciano believes he was more battle tested along the way.

"I looked him up," Picciano said. "I've seen some stuff. We had the same amateur record. We're both on six-fight win streaks. He won his debut. He fought a guy who, you know, he wasn't really the toughest, I'd say, and he had kind of a war with him. The guy ended up quitting in the third round just because he was in side control. That's how he ended up winning his pro debut, which, it's fine. You can't control that. A dub is a dub, right? But I'm just thinking that I've had way better experience. I've fought better guys – because we've had the same amount of fights, same amount of experience on paper, but I think that my eight guys were way better than his eight guys.

"He's fighting out of Ohio. Like, who the hell is in Ohio, bro? I'm out here on Long Island fighting. I've got Section XI wrestlers and stuff like that coming over to MMA. Section XI is one of the toughest wrestling areas around. The county tournament is harder than the state tournament on Long Island. We've got solid guys. My gym is full of killers."

Picciano gets his chance to prove his theory next Friday, where he believes he'll move his record to 2-0. But this time around, simply winning isn't enough. He wants some style points, as well.

"I'm going to go out there, and I'm going to whoop his ass, but it's going to just look cooler," Picciano said. "First-round finish. Let's go."