Aaron Pico got revenge against Henry Corrales by raining down elbows for a first round stoppage in Saudi Arabia.
[autotag]Aaron Pico[/autotag] got one back against Henry Corrales.
Closing out the prelims of PFL vs. Bellator: Champions, Pico (13-4) ran it back against Corrales (21-8) in a rematch from 2019. Although Pico took a loss in their first meeting, this time around Pico closed the show by TKO in the first round at 4:53.
The lightweight bout took place on the prelims at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Pico stepped on the gas from the beginning of the fight, offering heavy forward pressure. Mixing in striking and wrestling, Pico’s pace kept Corrales on the back foot, and also on the mat from takedowns.
In the closing seconds of the opening round, Pico postured and delivered a series of hard elbows that forced the referee to step in and stop the fight with just seven seconds left in the round.
In their first meeting at Bellator 214, it was Corrales who secured a first-round stoppage against Pico. This time, the result flipped as Pico extended his winning streak to three in a row.
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Up-to-the-minute results of PFL vs. Bellator: Champions include:
Aaron Pico def. Henry Corrales via TKO (elbows) – Round 1, 4:53
Bellator stars [autotag]Patricio Freire[/autotag] and [autotag]Aaron Pico[/autotag] are looking at new matchups – a domino effect that stemmed from the withdrawal of Jesus Pinedo.
Pinedo was initially scheduled to face Freire (35-7) in a champion vs. champion matchup. Filling that void will now be [autotag]Gabriel Braga[/autotag] (12-1), who was initially scheduled vs. Pico (12-4).
The promotion now targets Pico for a rematch against 2019 foe [autotag]Henry Corrales[/autotag], a seasoned, gritty veteran, who is one of the longest-tenured fighters under the Bellator banner. Corrales (21-7) won their first meeting with an onslaught-halting knockout punch.
Four people with knowledge of the changes recently informed MMA Junkie of the promotion’s plans. It’s unclear at this time if bout agreements have been signed by all parties, as some fighters are still in transit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the site of Saturday’s event. Ag. Fight first reported Freire vs. Braga.
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“Pitbull” Freire looks to bounce back from the first two-fight losing skid of his career. In June, he attempted to win Bellator gold in a third weight class but was unsuccessful at bantamweight against Sergio Pettis. In an impromptu move, Freire took on days notice a fight under the RIZIN banner in July. He was upset by Chihiro Suzuki in Round 1.
Braga, who knows Freire well, competes just weeks after the death of his father, who served as his MMA mentor. Braga was the runner-up in the 2023 PFL featherweight post-season. His loss to Jesus Pinedo in the divisional championship was the first of his career.
Pico has long-served as one of the faces of Bellator, particularly as an example of the promotion’s homegrown-talent-building. Under the spotlight since before his professional debut, Pico has encountered ups and downs inside the Bellator cage. However, he appears to have hit his stride in recent fights, with wins over James Gonzalez and Pedro Carvalho.
Corrales looks to bounce back from an October unanimous decision loss to Kai Kamaka III. The defeat snapped a three-fight winning streak. Corrales has been with Bellator since 2015 and has a 9-7 promotional record.
With the changes, the projected PFL vs. Bellator: Champions lineup includes:
There are multiple paths forward for Aaron Pico after the PFL-Bellator merger, but in his mind they all lead to the one thing: A title belt.
[autotag]Aaron Pico[/autotag] is solely focused on his fight with Gabriel Braga at PFL vs. Bellator: Champions later this months, but the potentially opportunities beyond that aren’t lost on him.
Like many, Pico (12-4), who has spent the entirety of his MMA career fighting under the Bellator banner, finds himself largely in the dark in terms of the plans for his future after PFL’s acquisition of Bellator. He’s fortunate enough to find himself on the inaugural card of this new era for PFL, however, it’s unknown where a win or loss will take him.
With the possibility of fighting under PFL’s reimagined Bellator brand, in a PFL season or on a PFL pay-per-view, there are multiple compelling avenues for Pico moving forward.
“When a big decision like that is presented to me and I have some options to figure out,” Pico told MMA Junkie. “I’ll sit down with my coaches and my manager and my family and figure out what is the best thing. I haven’t really given it too much thought. I haven’t heard anything about the Bellator-PFL thing. All the news that I got was, ‘Get ready for this fight Feb. 24.’ That’s all my brain can handle.”
Pico has long dreamt of claiming the Bellator title, but with the long-term future of the promotion largely unclear, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether that dream will remain realistic. What is realistic, though, is that Pico will have something significant to strive for, and that’s enough to keep him motivated.
“Of course that is a big goal of mine to win the Bellator belt,” Pico said. “That’s something that I’ve set out to do. But I have the mindset now that wherever I end up, no matter what happens, nothing is impossible. Wherever I’m at I’m going to try to conquer that. Whether it’s fighting for a Bellator belt, I’ll fight for the Bellator belt. Fight for the PFL? I’ll fight off the PFL belt. Anywhere that I’m put into I want to be the best. So wherever that may, only time will tell. I just have to do my job. It’s as simple as that. Win, and winning solves everything.”
Pico, 27, will get one of the best PFL has to offer on the PFL vs. Bellator card, which takes place Feb. 24 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (ESPN+ pay-per-view). Braga (12-1) made it to the finals of the 2023 PFL featherweight season before suffering a TKO loss to Jesus Pinedo, and the 25-year-old Brazilian brings a unique quality that Pico has to account for going into fight night.
It’s the toughest test of my career,” Pico said. “He’s young. He’s younger than me, which is the first time fighting someone younger than me. I’ve been fighting guys that are a lot older. But he’s a great striker, great on the ground. This is going to be a great fight for us, so I’m ready to go test myself and win.”
Check out the UFC, PFL, and Bellator fights that were first reported or confirmed by MMA Junkie in the past week.
MMA fight announcements are hard to follow. With so many outlets and channels available, it’s nearly impossible to organize.
But here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got your back.
Each week, we’ll compile all the newly surfaced fights in one spot. Every Monday, expect a feature listing everything you might have missed from the UFC, PFL, and Bellator.
Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie or officially announced by the promotions from Jan. 15-21.
Here’s MMA Junkie’s 24-fight wishlist for the new year.
2023 didn’t disappoint in terms of great MMA action, and 2024 looks just as promising, if not more.
With 2024 underway, there’s a new year of fresh possibilities for dream matchups across the MMA landscape, from the UFC to Bellator, PFL, RIZIN FF, ONE Championship and more.
Aaron Pico would love the gift of a rematch this holiday season, but he’s not getting his hopes up that Santa will come through.
[autotag]Aaron Pico[/autotag] would love the gift of a rematch this holiday season, but he’s not getting his hopes up that Santa will come through.
Pico (12-4 MMA, 12-4 BMMA) had a six-fight winning streak snapped in 2022 when a shoulder injury at Bellator 286 led to a TKO after the first round against [autotag]Jeremy Kennedy[/autotag] (19-3 MMA, 4-1 BMMA). Because of that unique circumstance, Pico wants to run it back – and says Kennedy is being elusive about it.
“I want to make something clear: I’ve asked to fight Kennedy so many times,” Pico recently told MMA Junkie Radio. “Him and I have the same manager, Ali (Abdelaziz). … I’ve asked: ‘I want to fight a rematch with Kennedy. That wasn’t a clean win.’ I’ve said it time and time again. But you know who doesn’t want that fight is Kennedy. He doesn’t want that.”
Pico, a standout high school wrestler who skipped the college wrestling scene to move straight into MMA, dislocated his shoulder at Bellator 286, and though he was willing to fight with it into the second round, the bout was called off.
Pico said then-Bellator president Scott Coker said the nature of the loss wouldn’t be counted against him.
“That night when I was in the hospital, I got a call from Scott Coker. He said, ‘Hey, that win didn’t count for Kennedy. I don’t even count that. You were worried. You wanted to fight. But I want to run that fight back ASAP.’ I said, ‘You got it, boss. I want that fight as bad as you do.'”
Instead, once he was recovered, Pico said he started hearing no.
“I had the surgery. I’m calling for the fight, asking Ali: ‘No, no, no. You have to fight (James Gonzalez).’ OK. I fight him. I win. I said, ‘OK, I want to fight Kennedy.’
‘Now you’ve got to fight Pedro Carvalho.’ I beat Pedro Carvalho. I said, ‘OK, I’m ready to fight Kennedy.’ Now Kennedy is going to fight for the championship, so I really don’t know what’s going on. Then the rankings come out. I’m above Kennedy, so explain that to me.”
Pico implied Kennedy’s own win over Carvalho 10 months ago in Dublin had him in line to fight champion Patricio Freire, which would explain not jumping at the chance to fight Pico again – and possibly lose and fall out of the immediate title race.
But regardless, Pico said he recognizes he’s in the prime time to be busy in the sport.
“I haven’t really heard anything for PFL, just in Bellator,” he said. “I believe I should fight for the title, and just because you believe it doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily going to happen. But I can say I’m not sitting at my house whining or complaining. I’m in the gym getting better. I’m getting better in my personal life, I’m getting better in the gym, I’m spending time with my son – so in all aspects of my life, I’m trying to enhance myself so when that time does come and they say you’re going to fight, for example, in March, I’m ready to go, and against anybody, and we’ll be ready.”
It’s going to sound a little out there, but Aaron Pico has an idea about what to do if he doesn’t get a fight booked soon.
[autotag]Aaron Pico[/autotag] has an idea about what he might do if he doesn’t get another MMA fight booked soon, and it’s going to sound a little out there.
If the Bellator featherweight contender doesn’t know what his next step is reasonably soon now that Bellator is owned by the PFL, he might take a shot at making the Olympic wrestling team. But the Californian won’t be trying to get on the mats to chase a medal for the U.S. It would be for Mexico.
“Give me a time frame of when you think I’m going to fight, because if it’s six months, eight months – listen, I have goals,” Pico told MMA Junkie Radio. “I’ll go wrestle, honestly. I’ll go try to make the Mexican Olympic team, Paris in 2024. I’ll go box. I’ll keep myself active. But I just want to have some sense of direction of time of when I’m going to fight.”
Pico said dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico means he could try to make the Mexican national team and represent that country in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, even though he lives and trains in the U.S.
Pico acknowledged such a thing would come with plenty of obstacles, which means his most likely next step remains in MMA. But he’s just uncertain of what that will be after the merger. Some Bellator fighters will continue to fight other Bellator fighters in Bellator-branded events in 2024. Others will fight their PFL champion counterparts, the PFL has said. And still others might just get folded into the PFL and make runs ini the 2024 seasons.
“I have two fights left on my (Bellator) contract,” Pico said. “I’m No. 2 in Bellator (in the featherweight division). And a big goal of mine was to become a world champion in Bellator. I would love to fight for the belt. That’s something that I want to have on my resume is a Bellator championship. I felt like I really had momentum to be a world champion. I’m right there. I’m starting to come into my own as a fighter. I have everything in order with my team. I feel solid.
“So to be quite frank, I would love to fight for the Bellator world championship and my dream was to have Scott Coker wrap the belt around my waist because I started with him. He stuck by me through the ups and downs. I’m forever grateful for him. He’s always been by my side and encouraging me to keep going through the tough times and through the good times.”
Coker, however, has not been announced as one of the Bellator personnel who will make the transition to the PFL after the sale.
Pico said he wants to fight Bellator featherweight champion and all-time pound-for-pound great Patricio Freire. But “Pitbull” may be targeted for one of the aforementioned champ-vs.-champ fights.
Jeremy Kennedy also has been stumping for a fight with Freire, though, even though Freire has 2023 PFL featherweight $1 million winner Jesus Pinedo on his radar, too. They faced off in the cage after Pinedo’s win.
So when the signs for Pico point toward him continuing to wait for what’s next, the Olympic thing or boxing sound a lot more realistic.
And he said if somehow Kennedy jumps him in line, he’ll ultimately deal with it. But at 27, he’d take fights with all those names.
“I want to be remembered and, to be up front, I want to make money,” Pico said. “I want to put on classic fights. I’m exciting and I want to fight the best guys in the world and in all organizations. I only have a certain amount of time in this game, and I don’t want to waste it. I want to fight.”
But, uh, that, that would’ve, that was a dream of mine. But, uh, I, I’m optimistic that, uh, we’ll see. I just have to be prepared for anything.
“Ideally, yes. I want to fight for the belt next,” Pico told reporters at a post-fight news conference. “No ifs, ands or buts. I believe I’m ready.”
The victorious outcome was Pico’s second consecutive win following an unfortunate TKO loss to Jeremy Kennedy due to a shoulder injury last October. Prior to that, Pico ripped through six opponents. Now, it’s gold or bust, and he says he truly won’t be happy until he can call himself champion.
“I’m happy, but I don’t have a belt wrapped around my waist,” Pico said. “So, the job is not done, to be honest with you. There’s not much to really celebrate other than a nice victory. But I won’t be entirely happy until I have a belt wrapped around my waist.”
Patricio Freire is the current Bellator featherweight champion. “Pitbull” recently came up short in a bantamweight title challenge against Sergio Pettis in June, and then lost an unexpected, super short-notice bout against Chihiro Suzuki in July.
Pico currently sits at No. 3 in the Bellator featherweight promotional rankings, behind Kennedy and Adam Borics. None of the top featherweights are currently scheduled for bouts, so it remains to be seen which direction the promotion goes for the next title fight in the division.
Reflecting on his career, Pico has found peace with the ups and downs, especially considering he is still on track to reach his goal of fighting for a world title.
“I feel good with my journey,” Pico said. “I was thinking about this on the plane ride here. Of course, you want a perfect record. You want to be 16-0 with 15 knockouts, just perfect. That’s not life, to be honest with you. I’m a father now. … I’m so happy with how my career went. I have a lot more wisdom now to share with my son.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 299.
Aaron Pico celebrated is 27th birthday with a dominant performance that could earn him a Bellator featherweight title shot.
[autotag]Aaron Pico[/autotag] gave [autotag]Pedro Carvalho[/autotag] no chance.
Pico, the Bellator featherweight contender, picked up a quick TKO win in the co-main event of Saturday’s Bellator 299 in Dublin. Pico (12-4 MMA, 12-4 BMMA) put away Carvalho (13-8 MMA, 6-5 BMMA) with ground-and-pound 3:05 into the first round. It was another dominant showing for Pico, this one on his 27th birthday.
Pico began picking apart Carvalho on the feet and mixing in his wrestling to get takedowns. In one of the exchanges, Pico caught Carvalho with an uppercut and dropped him to the canvas. From there, Pico began a non-stop attack of ground-and-pound until he got Carvalho to roll over and stop defending himself, forcing the referee to stop the fight.
Following the win, Pico called for a title shot, saying he’s now finally ready to fight for gold and vowed that he will defend his belt once it’s his.
Currently, Bellator featherweight champion Patricio Freire is out recovering from spinal surgery. He’s expected to return in early 2024. It’s uncertain if the promotion is going to implement an interim title in the division.
Pico is now on a two-fight winning streak since dislocating his shoulder against Jeremy Kennedy in October 2022, losing a by TKO due to injury. Prior to the injury, the JacksonWink fighter was on a six-fight winning streak, with all victories coming by stoppage.
Carvalho, on the other hand, finds himself on a two-fight losing streak and is 2-5 in his most recent seven fights. His last win came in September 2022, when he outpointed Mads Burnell in a unanimous decision.
Updated Bellator 299 results include:
Aaron Pico def. Pedro Carvalho via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 3:05
Sara Collins def. Sinead Kavanagh via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Mads Burnell def. Daniel Weichel via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Aaron Pico doesn’t want young fighters to make the same mistake he says he did early in his Bellator career.
[autotag]Aaron Pico[/autotag] had to learn the hard way.
Pico’s start to his professional career was an unexpected one. He signed and debuted with Bellator at just 20 years of age, and came into the sport with several junior medals in wrestling and as a Junior Golden Gloves boxing champion. Pico promised the world, and he wanted just that as soon as possible.
Unfortunately for him, Pico suffered a submission loss in his debut and at one point found himself 4-3 as a professional. He was fighting far more experienced fighters than him.
Now, Pico is 7-1 since the rut, and the only defeat came due to an injury. He had to dial back on the level of competition as he learned the ropes in MMA. And now knocking on the door of a title shot, Pico advises young fighters to take their time.
“My advice is to develop,” Pico said at Thursday’s Bellator 299 media day. “There’s no rush. Everyone looks at Jon Jones as in, ‘I want to be the youngest (champion). I want to do this,’ but that’s an exception. That’s one guy. Your journey is different. I kind of made that mistake early on and said I want to be champion early on. This game is evolving so much and everyone is good. There’s no rush. You will be champion in due time – when the right time is for you.
“Take your time, (book the) right fights – because it’s a pain in the ass to get your confidence back. For me, I had to really dig deep and surround myself with good people and come back because my confidence was shot for a long time – and it’s coming back for sure.”
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Pico (11-4 MMA, 11-4 BMMA) reurns to the cage this Saturday against Pedro Carvalho (13-7 MMA, 6-4 BMMA) in the co-main event of Bellator 299, which takes place Saturday at 3Arena in Dublin. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.
Although Carvalho is Portuguese, he’s been training at SBG Ireland for many years and is fan favorite in the country. Pico has yet to fight in enemy territory, but he’s excited for the opportunity.
“I’ve never done this in my career as far as MMA,” Pico said. “Of course in wrestling, I’ve been all over the world, and I’ve wrestled, but I think as an MMA fighter, it’s good for my development because I’m sure in the future I’m going to be in people’s backyards and fighting.
“They always say that the Irish are some of the best fans in the world, and I have the opportunity to put on a show in front of them, so it’s going to be good. I’m excited, but it doesn’t play (a factor). I’ve wrestled all over the world, and his fans can’t fight for him. His coaches can’t fight for him. It’s just him and I locked in there.”
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