‘My job was on the line’: Aaron Pico treated UFC 327 fight like it was a must-win after brutal knockout loss in his debut

While every situation is different, Pico recognized that all the hype and excitement about him joining the UFC could have easily come crashing down around him with a second loss in a row.

“You never know,” Pico said. “You don’t want to assume. I don’t feel like I’m entitled. Like, no worries. This is business. No hard feelings. People run their organization and their business how they feel, and nobody is special. You can be cut at any time. I don’t take it for granted. I don’t feel special in any way. That’s why I just want to do my job. I try to do it to the best of my ability. Try to put on a good show, but I needed to be smart, and I needed to win.

“Sometimes you felt the pressure, but I can honestly say going into fight week, I had the best time in the world. I had my team there. We enjoyed it. The weight cut was very, very easy, and I told myself going into the arena, the worst thing has happened to me in the UFC. I was on one of the biggest cards of the year, got knocked out in front of probably millions of people watching, and I was so tense going into the fight. So next time, when you step into that cage in a few hours, just let it flow. Exactly how you sparred, do it in the cage and enjoy it. I wish I would have told myself that earlier in my career.”

Pico also learned a lot about himself from that loss to Murphy in his UFC debut because he recognized that the aggressive, balls-to-the-wall way he attacked in that fight just wasn’t sustainable long term.

Sure, it provides for some really great highlights, but this time, Pico was on the wrong end of that equation, and he realized that something had to change going into his next fight.

“Being boring has never been my issue,” Pico said. “Even from youth wrestling, I was always exciting. People wanted to watch me wrestle just because I brought that intensity. I never really played it safe. But I know if I hold back a little bit, I’m still going to be exciting but I have to be smart. This is not wrestling. This is not boxing. This is MMA. With those small four-ounce gloves, a lot of things can happen.

“I had to really assess my game and the Lerone fight, yeah, I looked dominant, but it was just unnecessary. Let’s just call it what it is. It’s just unnecessary. I mean, the first two minutes was crazy. If I would have just taken a step back, used my footwork, took him down again, held him down, eventually he would have gone out. But everything happens for a reason.”

His performance against Pitbull was still thrilling and provided plenty of exciting moments, but Pico was much more patient and tactical with his offense while remembering that playing defense is definitely still important in MMA. The result was Pico winning in a shutout before receiving his first top 15 ranking from the UFC.

“I think it was one of my best performances to date, but it’s not the best version of myself yet,” Pico said. “I have so many things I want to work on, especially when I went back and watched the fight. There was some things that I feel I can do better, especially with footwork, head movement, holding him down, but I can’t be too hard on myself because he’s very, very good. It’s easier said than done.

“I have a lot of room for growth, and the most important thing is that I recognize that I don’t have it all figured out and I’m eager to learn in every area.”

Now that Pico has his first UFC win, he’s anxious to add another so he can get that much closer to his ultimate goal: becoming featherweight champion. To get there right now, Pico would have to go through Alexander Volkanovski, and he knows that potential fight would test him in new and different ways than any opponent he’s ever faced before.

“To fight [Alexander] Volkanovski, he is the gold standard,” Pico said. “He’s the greatest featherweight of all-time. I couldn’t fight him the way that I was fighting Lerone Murphy. I’d have to be smart. I’d have to pick my shots, and it is what it is.

“The way I fought Lerone Murphy in the first round — OK, now if it’s the fifth round or the third round and I was down two, hey, go for broke. Start going crazy. You may get knocked out, but it is what it is. But it was just unnecessary. I didn’t have to do that. But you live and learn, that’s life.”