Why is the UFC giving Aaron Pico tough anti-wrestler fighters?

[Jeffery09]

What is the plan here bro? Is the UFC out to derail this man´s career or what? First you gave him Movsar in his debut fight and now Lerone Murphy?

How about giving him only some old Legends that are only strikers for his debut. Let him get a W first and build confidence then you can give him a winnable title eliminator.

But imo he was gonna lose to Movsar and he is gonna lose to Lerone Murphy on the 16th

 

[Mesos]

UFC likes to fraud check Bellator guys, and give them tough first fights. To see how good they are. Pico is mainly known for his wrestling but his boxing is pretty good too so its not like he doesn't have a chance. Either way Murphy is very technical, precise with his striking so I think he wins. This is a way more difficult fight
for Pico.

 

[theincognito]

Murphy is no great anti-wrestler. Emmett slammed him like a rag doll.

And for the Movsar one, I think they were hoping and praying that Pico had the style to rid the title picture of Movsar more than the other way around.

 

[Gabe]

They want him against a top 5 guy asap so he can leapfrog Movsar.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

What is the plan here bro? Is the UFC out to derail this man´s career or what? First you gave him Movsar in his debut fight and now Lerone Murphy?

How about giving him only some old Legends that are only strikers for his debut. Let him get a W first and build confidence then you can give him a winnable title eliminator.

But imo he was gonna lose to Movsar and he is gonna lose to Lerone Murphy on the 16th

Bellator/PFL guys get the very hard matchups. We all have seen how this works.

 

[BJJ4Tone]

I'd argue that matching Pico against Movsar was more of an attempt to displace Movsar from title contention than it was to expose Pico.
Pico is a horrible matchup for Movsar.

 

[Chubi]

It has been the blueprint for a long time, when guys are a big name in other org, the UFC destroy them first, then let them rebuild their name as UFC guys.

 

[Pequeño Corey]

No one in UFC wants matches against guys like mossfart and leroy. High risk, low reward.

Dudes coming in from the other orgs can't be choosey, so they take anything. It's a chance to knock off boring fighters who are really good while building up a fresh face, or, they get to do the victory dance after fraud checking a fighter from another promotion. Win win.

 

[TheBulge]

Pico will be fine. I believe it's gonna take more than an anti wrestler to beat him.

 

[KillerIsBack V2]

Biggest hype around pico in his bellator debut is that he was a usual sparring partner to boxing great Miguel Cotto at the raw age of 16 while he was. Pico competed in amateur boxing in his teens with multiple national level trophies.

 

[Leonard Haid]

This is a gift for Pico, a chance to jump the queue and become an immediate title contender.

 

[JKS]

What is the plan here bro? Is the UFC out to derail this man´s career or what? First you gave him Movsar in his debut fight and now Lerone Murphy?

How about giving him only some old Legends that are only strikers for his debut. Let him get a W first and build confidence then you can give him a winnable title eliminator.

But imo he was gonna lose to Movsar and he is gonna lose to Lerone Murphy on the 16th

Derail his career by giving him a chance at the two biggest win streaks at FW??? How does that make any sense? If anything they are giving up a fast lane to a title shot and huge favortism.

Look at what they did with Pitbull. Top contender in Yair, he blew it and then they gave him an easier fight in Ige. Same thing will go where is Pico loses.

 

[Cameron]

Lets just hope he doesn't get UFC jitters and walk into another KO

 

[JKS]

No one in UFC wants matches against guys like mossfart and leroy. High risk, low reward.

Dudes coming in from the other orgs can't be choosey, so they take anything. It's a chance to knock off boring fighters who are really good while building up a fresh face, or, they get to do the victory dance after fraud checking a fighter from another promotion. Win win.

I would say it's a pretty high reward beating those guys. Two longest winning streak at FW and top contenders. It's pretty much an instant title shot with a win.

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

UFC likes to fraud check Bellator guys, and give them tough first fights. To see how good they are. Pico is mainly known for his wrestling but his boxing is pretty good too so its not like he doesn't have a chance. Either way Murphy is very technical, precise with his striking so I think he wins. This is a way more difficult fight
for Pico.

They did it to Askren, I laughed my arse off when they announced Lawler as his first opponent.

 

[Jawth]

UFC wins either eay, either they show non UFC fighters as lesser or an elite but boring contender gets bumped off.

 

[Lycandroid]

The UFC always tries to destroy the big names when they come over to the UFC

 

[Jeffery09]

I was correct about this all along.

Aaron Pico is very young hence the rushing was very unnecessary and honestly speaking he has shown some great potential last night despite the KO loss and even Lerone Murphy said this was the toughest 1st round he has ever had in the UFC, such words speak volumes.

Aaron Pico has an aggressive fighting style and he is a dog but the only issue is that he is still young and growing in the sport and he should have not been rushed into a title eliminator with a veteran like Lerone Murphy who is on 9 fight winning streak plus at the top of his game. Even that Movsar fight was very silly.

He should have been given someone like Brian Ortega, Sterling, Arnold Allen or Josh Emmett but they should have kept him away from fighters like Murphy, Movsar and Lopes these are fighters in their prime and at high level while the other 4 were suitable as they are on their way down plus exiting prime and it would have been a good confidence build.

This fight with Lerone Murphy should have never happened in the first place and honestly speaking I think Aaron Pico has a higher sealing then Murhpy but he was beaten due to experience which is why he should have not fought Lerone Murhpy now but 1-2 years from now and I bet that fight would have looked entirely different then last night. Pico has more power, better wrestling, grappling and more relentless fighting style then Murhpy but what Murphy had on him was high level experience

 

[scytheavatar]

I don't get the grazing Pico gets, the idea that Pico is a bad matchup for Movsar is laughable when Movsar was able to out wrestle Sterling. Pico is not going to out wrestle Movsar and he sure as hell isn't going to out strike Movsar either when Movsar was able to dominate Allen in the standup. So how is Pico going to beat Movsar?