Not everybody is a fan of Aaron Pico’s new UFC debut.
Former Bellator star Pico is one of the brightest prospects we’ve seen in recent memory. The 28-year-old is 13-4 (9 KO) as a pro and is a former amateur golden gloves boxing champion and medalist in freestyle wrestling. Pico turned his career around after suffering a massive upset loss in his MMA debut.
Pico signed to the UFC earlier this year and was supposed to debut against the undefeated #1 contender Movsar Evloev at UFC Abu Dhabi this weekend. Unfortunately, Evloev withdrew and on Saturday, the UFC announced a new opponent and date for Pico.
Pico will now face the 16-0 Lerone Murphy at UFC 319 on Aug. 16, in Chicago, Illinois—the co-main event to middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev.
A former fighter doesn’t understand why Pico accepted this fight.
Josh Thomson says Lerone Murphy ‘tougher fight’ for Aaron Pico than Movsar Evloev
England’s Murphy is primarily a striker, a totally different style matchup than the grappling-heavy Evloev.
Murphy is ranked five spots below Evloev and hasn’t yet cracked the top-5 despite defeating perennial contender Josh Emmett in his first main event in April. Murphy’s undefeated at 16-0-1 and he has eight straight wins in the UFC.
Former Strikeforce Champion and UFC lightweight Josh Thomson thinks Pico might have made a mistake going up against Murphy.
“I have no idea why you took this fight,” Thomson said of Pico on the Weighing In Podcast.
“You went from Evloev, who’s basically considered to be the number one contender.
“Stylistically, this is a tough fight,” Thomson said of new opponent Murphy.
“I’m not saying that Aaron can’t win this fight. This is a tougher fight for him than the Evloev fight. I wanted to see the Evloev fight because the two of them can wrestle. The boxing favors Pico a little bit.
“That’s the fight that I always wanted to see, so I’m being sour right now,” Thomson continued.
“But the Lerone Murphy fight, to me, Pico’s gonna have to close that distance. He cannot let Lerone Murphy stay on the outside. He’s got to close that distance, get in there. I think he has the opportunity to take him down, but he’s gonna take some shots coming in…”
Movsar Evloev could potentially get next title shot
19-0 as a pro and 9-0 in the UFC, it’s getting pretty hard to deny Movsar Evloev of a title opportunity.
The #1 UFC featherweight contender is coming off wins over former champion Aljamain Sterling, Arnold Allen and Diego Lopes, who fought and lost to Alexander Volkanovski for the title at UFC 314 in April.
One of the only things that has prevented Evloev from a title opportunity is likely his lack of finishes, with all nine of his UFC victories coming by way of decision.
Still, the champion Volkanovski has vouched for Evloev to be his next challenger on multiple occasions.