It felt like we were waiting for an age for Aaron Pico's MMA debut, but maybe we weren't waiting long enough.
In hindsight, Bellator's matchmakers made a huge mistake booking Aaron Pico's promotional/professional debut.
At 18 years of age, Pico had won a FILA national championship in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, a Junior Golden Gloves championship, signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with Nike and was snapped up by Bellator on a long-term contract.
Two years later, the man who trainer Bob Cook famously labelled "
the greatest MMA prospect he's ever seen" finally had his first fight on the Bellator 180 in New York. His opponent, 8-2 Zach Freeman entered into this fight off the back of an RFA title fight loss to Thiago Moises, and he was fully focused on derailing Pico's hype train.
Just 24-seconds into the bout, it was over as Pico succumbed to a d'Arce choke after being dazed by his vastly more experienced opponent. The 20-year-old charged towards his adversary from the get-go but immediately ate a nasty knew. The second time he tried to engage, Pico ate a wicked uppercut and fell right into the choke.
When he came back for more, he was handed a knuckle-sandwich to the kisser which rocked him and from there he pretty much fell into the choke. Pico ate a wicked uppercut which Freeman finished with relative ease.
https://twitter.com/NickBrownHD/status/878813378419933184
