Miami — On the one hand, Aaron Pico is taking his UFC 327 match-up with old Bellator MMA rival Patricio Pitbull like any other fight.
“It feels really good. It’s just another opponent. Business is business,” Pico (13-5) told media outlets including Cageside Press during Wednesday’s media day.
On the other hand, the featherweight star admits that the fight, in the works for years back in Bellator, being held in the UFC would have seemed crazy to him back in the day.
“Yeah I would have thought it was a little bit crazy, because I’d been scheduled to fight him in Bellator. And then if somebody was to say ‘you’re going to fight him in the UFC,’ I would have been ‘ahh yeah that’s crazy.'”
The fight comes at a crossroads for both men. Pitbull dropped his UFC debut to Yair Rodriguez last year, then bounced back with a victory over Dan Ige. Both went the distance; Pico’s own UFC debut did not, and saw him stopped in violent fashion.
Pico says he’s both “having fun” and “at peace,” and wasn’t sure who he’d fight next after losing his debut against Lerone Murphy. Pitbull, meanwhile, was calling out Pico, and while Pico wasn’t aware of that at the time, he responded on Wednesday by saying “careful what you wish for, you just might get it.”
As for the loss in what was to that point the biggest fight of his career, “I took it really hard,” Pico admitted. “I was really embarrassed, I had some down days. It’s just part of the game, especially when you put a lot of work into it. That’s what the fans sometimes don’t understand.”
“I’m very thankful for the fans, don’t get me wrong but then you also get the fans that criticize, and say certain things but they don’t see the behind the scenes. How much work, the hunger pains before bed because you’re cutting weight, the toll it takes on families and things like that. You put your life and soul into it and to come up short, especially on a big stage like that, I took it really really hard.”
A few weeks and time with his son got him out of the funk, added Pico. “It was very difficult, but I’m back now, so all good.”
Watch the full UFC 327 media day appearance by Aaron Pico above.
