Not everyone is a fan of the new UFC debut by Aaron Pico.
Former Bellator star Pico is one of the smartest prospects we have seen in the recent memory. The 28-year-old is 13-4 (9 KO) as a professional and is a former amateur golden gloves boxing champion and medal winner in Freestyle Wrestelen. Pico turned his career after a huge loss of loss in his MMA debut.
Pico signed at the UFC earlier this year and would debut this weekend against the unbeaten #1 -Gederdener Movsar Evloev on UFC Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately, Evloev withdrew and on Saturday the UFC announced a new opponent and date for Pico.
Pico is now confronted with the 16-0 Lerone Murphy on UFC 319 on August 16 in Chicago, Illinois-the Co-Main event for middleweight champion Dric Du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev.
A former hunter does not understand why Pico accepted this fight.
Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty images
Josh Thomson says that Lerone Murphy 'stricter fight' for Aaron Pico Dan Movsar Evloev
England's Murphy is primarily a striker, a totally different matchup than the Grappling-Heavy Evloev.
Murphy is in five places under EVLOEV and has not yet cracked the Top-5, despite the beating of multi-year competitor Josh Emmett in his first main event in April. Murphy is unbeaten on 16-0-1 and he has eight consecutive victories in the UFC.
Former StrikeForce champion and UFC Lightweight Josh Thomson thinks Pico may have made a mistake against Murphy.
“I have no idea why you took this fight,” Thomson said about Pico about weighing in Podcast.
“You went from Evloev, who is in fact considered the number one competition.
“Stylistically this is a tough fight,” said Thomson about the new opponent Murphy.
“I am not saying that Aaron cannot win this fight. This is a more difficult fight for him than the Evloev fight. I wanted to see the Evloev fight because they can struggle two. The boxing grants a bit for the favors.
“That is the fight I always wanted to see, so I'm sour now,” Thomson continued.
“But the Lerone Murphy fight, for me, Pico will have to close that distance. He can't let Lerone Murphy stay on the outside. He has to close that distance, go there. I think he has the chance to get him down, but he will make some shots in …”
Movsar Evloev could possibly get the following title shot
19-0 As a pro and 9-0 in the UFC it is quite difficult to deny Movsar Evloev from a title chance.
The #1 UFC candidate for featherweight comes from the victories at former champion Aljamain Sterling, Arnold Allen and Diego Lopes, who fought and lost to Alexander Volkanovski for the title on UFC 314 in April.
One of the few things that EVLOEV has prevented by a title Kans is likely to be his lack of finishes, in which all nine of his UFC victories come as a decision.
Nevertheless, the Volkanovski champion has been responsible for Evloev several times to be his next challenger.