Miami — “I knew I was capable of what I did tonight, and I just had to stay patient and show it. And I did tonight.”
Aaron Pico (14-5) has reason to be excited. After being embarrassed, frankly, in his UFC debut when Lerone Murphy knocked him out, Pico returned to form at UFC 327, notching his first UFC victory and picking up a win over longtime Bellator MMA rival Patricio Pitbull in the process.
Online, Pico’s performance has been called his best ever. In the cage at the Kaseya Center in Miami, he felt things were slow, he told media outlets including Cageside Press.
“I felt everything was slow in there. I felt like my punches were slow. I have to go back and watch it,” Pico stated. “I felt like I was hitting him and blood was coming down his face, I felt like everything was so slow.”
Despite a big win, Pico also admitted that “I have a lot of things to work on. He got up from me, I have to hold him down. But he’s a veteran, how many times was he champion in Bellator? He fought the top guys. I was just the better fighter tonight, but much respect to him.”
Pico’s future now looks bright once again. A lot of match-ups in the featherweight division await. When he first signed with the UFC, Pico was linked to a fight with Movsar Evloev, which never came to fruition. That’s still a possibility.
“I want to fight ranked guys. I hope this puts me in the rankings. I would love to get a rematch with Lerone Murphy, I would love to run that back. There’s Movsar, there’s so many guys in the division, and this is one of the toughest weight classes in the UFC,” noted Pico.
“I was hungry to get a win, but now I’m starving to be a champion. So I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Watch the full UFC 327 post-fight press conference with Aaron Pico above.
