Aaron
Pico will return to action for the first time since injuring
his shoulder this past October when he faces Otto
Rodrigues at Bellator
295.
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MMAjunkie.com was first to report the featherweight booking.
Additionally,
MMFighting.com has confirmed that a 145-pound clash pitting
Mads
Burnell against Justin
Gonzales is also set for the event. Bellator 295 takes place at
the Neil S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, on April 22 and
is headlined by a bantamweight grand prix final matchup between
Raufeon
Stots and Patrick
Mix.
Pico suffered a first-round TKO loss to Jeremy
Kennedy at Bellator 286 due to a shoulder injury suffered in
the bout. That snapped a six-bout Bellator winning streak for the
26-year-old Jackson-Wink MMA product.
A 34-year-old native of Rio de Janeiro, Rodrigues has compiled a
13-1 mark since beginning his professional tenure in 2007. Most
recently, Rodrigues outpointed Carlos
Augusto Santos da Silva at LFA 112 in July 2021.
Denmark’s Burnell is coming off an 0-2 campaign in 2022 that saw
him drop unanimous verdicts against Adam Borics
and Pedro
Carvalho. Prior to that, he had compiled a seven-bout winning
streak that included three triumphs under the Bellator banner.
After suffering the first loss of his professional career to Pico
in November 2021, Gonzales rebounded with wins over Kai Kamaka
III and Andrew
Fisher in Bellator competition last year. “J-Train” owns a 14-1
career mark.