Aaron Pico Should Come to the UFC Now

His chin is already a problem at the bottom bellatorelon.

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He wasn't fighting low level competition. I swear you guys don't know what you are talking about. Pico has been fighting guys way more experienced and proven than himself, it's been a know issue among people that actually watch him fight for years now and he has adjusted and started taking some lower level fights that make a lot more sense for how little experience he has.
 
Over half the UFC roster is no wiki guys at this point or worse. The UFC is flooded with cans significantly worse than the notable Bellator talents. Im not saying Pico wins belt but he's an A level athlete with an elite wrestling background and a great amateur boxing pedigree that got into MMA instead of dedicating himself to Olympic and international wrestling...a rare kinda prospect. Hes 25 now though and 8-3 professionally and while he got tossed to. 16-3 Corrales when he was only 4-1 and to a more experienced prospect in Borics that was 12-0 when Pico was 4-2...Now Pico has been built up, is reaching the early stages of his prime years and gained experience...lets see what he can do.

By the way, Bellator fighters may not come to the UFC and simply dominate at the elite level but MANY Bellator fighters to the UFC and became top 10 fighters.
Finally someone that actually knows something about Pico gives their opinion. This thread is full of people that know almost nothing about Pico but give their opinions anyway. Anyone claiming that Pico has faced low level competition hasn't been watching Pico fight.
 
You are way off here, it really sounds like you haven't followed much of Pico's career at all. He fought high level guys right away. You shouldn't be comparing him to someone like MVP who has faced way lower competition. What Bellator does with MVP's match making doesn't apply at all to Pico.

The only guys UFC throws into the fire coming into the UFC are champions or title contenders for other major organizations, Pico is neither yet.

The UFC doesn't throw guys into the fire comparatively speaking? Bellator has given countless guys cupcake matchups. And yes, I've followed Pico's career. After their expectations of him were derailed a bit, they scaled back the competition stylistically and he's been working his way up ever since. The kid is good, but the UFC does treat prospects differently and will burn them against one another often if not put them up against vets, while their match making is much, much better. We can agree to disagree for sure. That's fine.
 
Good shouts.

I know you both didn't mention him but I've always been a Douglas Lima fan ever since his first Bellator fight. He's another I would love to see in the UFC. Even if he isn't in his prime anymore, he still took a young lion like MVP to a split in his last fight.
Lima is actually younger than MVP (33 vs 34). He started his fighting career very young.
 
The UFC doesn't throw guys into the fire comparatively speaking? Bellator has given countless guys cupcake matchups. And yes, I've followed Pico's career. After their expectations of him were derailed a bit, they scaled back the competition stylistically and he's been working his way up ever since. The kid is good, but the UFC does treat prospects differently and will burn them against one another often if not put them up against vets, while their match making is much, much better. We can agree to disagree for sure. That's fine.

Bellator do routinely allow their prospects to can crush but this wasn't the case with Pico. Pico has never fought anyone with a losing record and never had an opponent with less than 10 pro fights on their record.
 
He wasn't fighting low level competition. I swear you guys don't know what you are talking about. Pico has been fighting guys way more experienced and proven than himself, it's been a know issue among people that actually watch him fight for years now and he has adjusted and started taking some lower level fights that make a lot more sense for how little experience he has.

That's the point I was making. They gave him guys with far too much experience early on and dialed it back after. We're basically agreeing here except for apparently how the UFC treats their prospects. It is what it is.

Maybe lumping in Pico with MVP was a bit strong. I'll definitely give you that. That's fair.
 
You guys claiming that Pico has been given easy match ups haven't watched any Pico fights.

He had a rough start out of choice so fair comment, but when he lost a few they stepped him down. Prior to that Justin guy who looks like Gaethje, he had a run of four easier fights.

Change my mind.
 
The UFC doesn't throw guys into the fire comparatively speaking? Bellator has given countless guys cupcake matchups. And yes, I've followed Pico's career. After their expectations of him were derailed a bit, they scaled back the competition stylistically and he's been working his way up ever since. The kid is good, but the UFC does treat prospects differently and will burn them against one another often if not put them up against vets, while their match making is much, much better. We can agree to disagree for sure. That's fine.
Compared to the guys Pico has fought no the UFC doest give guys with very little experience fights like Pico has gotten. They only give high level fights right away to guys who have proven to be top level before joining the UFC which Pico hasn't which is why comparing him Sage Northcutt or Mickey Gall makes a lot more sense than comparing him to guys like Alvarez, Lombard, Rockhold, Jacare, ect.
 
That's the point I was making. They gave him guys with far too much experience early on and dialed it back after. We're basically agreeing here except for apparently how the UFC treats their prospects. It is what it is.

Maybe lumping in Pico with MVP was a bit strong. I'll definitely give you that. That's fair.
You lumped Pico in with a guy who fights cans all the time and while Pico's competition has gone down after some losses he is still fighting much better competition than MVP. I haven't added up the win/loss ratio of their opponents but Pico's have a lot more wins and a lot less losses.
 
You lumped Pico in with a guy who fights cans all the time and while Pico's competition has gone down after some losses he is still fighting much better competition than MVP. I haven't added up the win/loss ratio of their opponents but Pico's have a lot more wins and a lot less losses.

I agree on the MVP part. I'll definitely concede that. Like I said, aggressive.

Also, rather than quote your post above, Gall and Sage are extreme examples. The UFC has a ton of prospects. Like I said, we're going to have to agree to disagree on that one.
 
He had a rough start out of choice so fair comment, but when he lost a few they stepped him down. Prior to that Justin guy who looks like Gaethje, he had a run of four easier fights.

Change my mind.
Yeah his last 4-5 fights have been lower level comp than before but the match ups still make sense and he is fighting guys with similar records or better for the most part. Pico was fighting guys who had fought for major org titles when he had like 6 fights.
 
I agree on the MVP part. I'll definitely concede that. Like I said, aggressive.

Also, rather than quote your post above, Gall and Sage are extreme examples. The UFC has a ton of prospects. Like I said, we're going to have to agree to disagree on that one.
Gall and Northcutt are the most similar prospects the UFC had to Pico though and they got much easier match ups. The UFC doesn't throw prospects to the wolves they do that with big free agents signings or when they buy another org with their top ranked fighters which Pico isn't. Like I said comparing Pico to guys like Northcutt and Gall makes a lot more sense than comparing him to guys like Rockhold, Lombard, Alvarez, Jacare ect.
 
Sure, another Ben Askren wouldn't hurt.
Askren? Are u implying he has bad striking?
When Pico was 16 he was Miquel Cotto’s sparring Partner.
Not to mention that he trained boxing under Paciaou’s boxing trainer for a while who only had good things to say.
 
Yeah his last 4-5 fights have been lower level comp than before but the match ups still make sense and he is fighting guys with similar records or better for the most part. Pico was fighting guys who had fought for major org titles when he had like 6 fights.

I think his first 6 fights were insanely tough.

But when I say the UFC won't baby him, I mean they're going to give him someone insane - like Yair, rather than Melsik - given we already know he's a phenomenal talent, particularly in terms of offence. Defensively he's not quite there. But his reputation sort of precedes him and he won't get any kid gloves if he switched over.
 
Gall and Northcutt are the most similar prospects the UFC had to Pico though and they got much easier match ups. The UFC doesn't throw prospects to the wolves they do that with big free agents signings or when they buy another org with their top ranked fighters which Pico isn't. Like I said comparing Pico to guys like Northcutt and Gall makes a lot more sense than comparing him to guys like Rockhold, Lombard, Alvarez, Jacare ect.

I never once compared Pico to those guys. They were much more established and with title runs in other organizations who fought much tougher fighters than Pico. Who was comparing him to Alvarez, Rockhold, Jacare and Alvarez? Those guys weren't prospects.

And yes, the UFC does give tough matchups to their prospects with some outliers, like you mentioned. Maybe we're looking at the term "thrown to the wolves" differently? You're caught up on a lot of semantics here and are definitely a follower and fan of Pico, but you're adding your own slant to this, lol.
 
Probably afraid that Jon Jones snorts him with that name
 
He had a rough start out of choice so fair comment, but when he lost a few they stepped him down. Prior to that Justin guy who looks like Gaethje, he had a run of four easier fights.

Change my mind.

They were easier but they were also about the level that I'd expect people with that amount of experience to be facing. None of them were cans.
 
I never once compared Pico to those guys. They were much more established and with title runs in other organizations who fought much tougher fighters than Pico. Who was comparing him to Alvarez, Rockhold, Jacare and Alvarez? Those guys weren't prospects.

And yes, the UFC does give tough matchups to their prospects with some outliers, like you mentioned. Maybe we're looking at the term "thrown to the wolves" differently? You're caught up on a lot of semantics here and are definitely a follower and fan of Pico, but you're adding your own slant to this, lol.
You didn't compare them specifically but IMO when you were thinking of guys being thrown to the wolves you were most likely thinking of those guys as the UFC doesn't throw prospects type fighters to the wolves, they didn't with Gall, they didn't with Northcutt and they didn't with a popular but flawed fighter like Kimbo Slice either. So the only thing that made sense was you were thinking about the type of match ups highly ranked guys get when coming into the UFC cause they certainly don't throw their prospects to the wolves.

Name these prospects that get thrown to the wolves in the UFC cause I can't think of any.
 
You didn't compare them specifically but IMO when you were thinking of guys being thrown to the wolves you were most likely thinking of those guys as the UFC doesn't throw prospects type fighters to the wolves, they didn't with Gall, they didn't with Northcutt and they didn't with a popular but flawed fighter like Kimbo Slice either. So the only thing that made sense was you were thinking about the type of match ups highly ranked guys get when coming into the UFC cause they certainly don't throw their prospects to the wolves.

Name these prospects that get thrown to the wolves in the UFC cause I can't think of any.

You don't think Kimbo fighting Roy Nelson is an example of that? I know the matchup is derived from the show but come on with that one, lol.

And no I wasn't thinking of those guys. Nice assumption. There's plenty of people in this thread who agree that the UFC typically makes better matchups for their younger fighters and gives prospects tougher fights than Bellator does while allowing certain guys to crush cans. You want to get worked up over it and disagree, that's okay. I don't care, lol.
 
You don't think Kimbo fighting Roy Nelson is an example of that? I know the matchup is derived from the show but come on with that one, lol.

And no I wasn't thinking of those guys. Nice assumption. There's plenty of people in this thread who agree. You want to get worked up over it, that's okay, lol.
Kimbo was on TUF, that's not being thrown to the wolves the teams pick the fights the UFC match maker isn't selecting the fights. Besides his first real fight in the UFC was against Houston Alexander which was a favorable match up for Kimbo.

You haven't named a single prospect that got thrown to the wolves. I've named multiple prospects that got much easier fights in the UFC than Pico got in Bellator. Northcutt got easier fights in UFC than he did in Rizin.

I don't want to get worked up, I want you to think this through cause you clearly aren't. You just made a blanket statement that the UFC throws prospects to the wolves all the time and I asked you to name them and you haven't.
 
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