As a heavily hyped prospect, Aaron Pico jumped right into the fire in his Bellator MMA debut, squaring off against 10-fight veteran Zach Freeman in June 2017.
In that bout, Pico was clipped and submitted in 24 seconds, but he rebounded to post four consecutive first-round KO/TKO victories under the Bellator banner. In each bout, Pico’s opponent was significantly more experienced. That was again the case at Bellator 214, when the former Olympic hopeful dropped Henry Corrales with an early uppercut before being knocked out with a right hook and follow-up punches at the 1:07 mark of round one.
Pico’s inexperience was on display as he engaged with Corrales in close quarters, digging to the body in hopes of another finish. That left an opening for Corrales to strike the decisive blow. However, Pico seemingly has no desire to scale down the quality of his competition going forward.
“I have to sit down with my family and figure out, do we take lesser opponents? OK, then give me lesser opponents,” Pico told assembled media following Bellator 214. “There’s going to be a hefty hospital bill, because I will really f—ing hurt somebody bad. I will hurt somebody that’s the same record as me.”
Pico’s wrestling ability has yet to surface in an MMA bout, in large part because of the prodigious power in his hands. His ability to shift gears and take the fight to the mat when things get hectic could prove to beneficial.
“Obviously I have a lot of power in my hands. But wait til they see my wrestling. My wrestling’s on a different level…I haven’t really had time to use my wrestling,” he said. “I’ve been knocking everybody out. But it’s a lesson when you go against these veterans. They’re able to endure the shots and weather the storm.”
Many in Pico’s situation would have eschewed the post-fight press conference to lick their wounds following such a devasting defeat. The Team Bodyshop representative is a face-the-music kind of guy.
“That’s just what you do,” he said. “The media’s always here when you win, and you’ve got to show your respect. You can’t just be wanting to come out when everything is good. When the s–t hits the fan, you’ve got to be a man. I’ve always said you’ve got to put your suit on and go face the media.”
For the most part, Pico doesn’t seem to be too discouraged by the defeat. While there is still plenty of room to grow as a fighter, each of his bouts thus far have been appointment viewing. Pico admits that he’s still learning.
“I’ve been here before. I lost my first pro fight. It was a hard night for me. There’s really no excuses to make,” he said. “I felt good out there, the training camp went well. I hit him; I have so much power in my hands I don’t realize I knock people down. It just happened so fast. Obviously, I made a mistake by staying in the pocket too long. It was a 50-50 chance of somebody getting knocked out.
“It sucks bad, but hey I’m 22 years old. I don’t have this figured out yet. It’s something that needs to slow down for me. I need to use my wrestling a little more and we’ll go from there. We’ll go back to the drawing board. “