Every division has a guy who treats the rankings like a velvet rope. He’s No. 4, you’re No. 12, so you’re not getting in, sorry, take it up with the bouncer. Aaron Pico just walked past that rope, looked at the bouncer and told him he doesn’t care what list his name is on.
He told MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin, “I really don’t give a sh*t. Some guys are like, ‘I can’t fight him because he’s No. 10 or No. 12 and I’m No. 4.’” Pico added that he doesn’t even look at that stuff.
That’s the correct answer. It’s also the answer that should earn him the Lerone Murphy rematch next.
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He already proved he means it
Talk is cheap in this sport. Pico’s track record is the receipt. He was booked against Arnold Allen at UFC 333. Allen, for the record, sits at No. 6 in the featherweight rankings MMA Mania published this week. That fight fell through and Pico ended up across from Losene Keita, a top prospect with exactly two UFC fights and no number next to his name.
That’s the worst trade in fighting. You go from a ranked name who can launch you up the ladder to a hungry, dangerous kid with nothing to lose and everything to gain from your scalp. High risk, low reward. Plenty of fighters would have “suddenly tweaked something” in camp. Pico took it, and then he put Keita away in the first round in Abu Dhabi to move to 2-1 in the UFC.
So when he says he doesn’t check the rankings before signing a bout agreement, I believe him, because he just did the thing he’s describing. That’s rarer than it should be.
He also gave the best line of fight week, telling MMA Fighting, “when I’m 60 years old in my rocking chair at my ranch, I want to be able to say I fought whoever they threw at me.” That’s peak Yellowstone energy and I’m fully on board. Give the man a porch, a rocking chair and a stack of old fight posters with zero cancellations on them.
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The humble part is the scary part
The sneaky detail in all of this is how much Pico downplays himself. “I’m of the mindset right now, I am a beginner and I’m trying to learn as much as I possibly can,” he said. He admitted to nerves in camp, too. A former Bellator star calling himself a beginner sounds like false modesty until you remember how his UFC run started. Murphy knocked him out in his octagon debut. That’s a humbling welcome.
Pico owned it. He told MMA Fighting he has no hard feelings toward Murphy other than the fact that Murphy beat him, and that good things followed the loss. He also didn’t pretend it was a robbery. He basically said he fought stupid and Murphy got lucky, which is the most fighter sentence ever spoken: equal parts accountability and refusing to give the other guy full credit. I respect it.
Book the rematch
Here’s where I’m planting my flag. Pico laid out two paths. One is the winner of Aljamain Sterling vs. Kevin Vallejos, a fight he said he’ll be watching very closely. Sterling is No. 4 and Vallejos is No. 11 in that latest update, and Pico is sitting at No. 10. Fine option. Sensible. Matchmaker comfort food.
The other is Murphy, and that’s the one that actually matters. Murphy is No. 3 at 145. Pico told MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn, “It puts me closer to fighting for a title. And I know I can beat him.”
He’s right on both counts about the stakes. A No. 10 guy jumping straight to No. 3 sounds like the exact ranking gymnastics Pico claims to ignore, and that’s the funny part. He doesn’t need the numbers to justify it. The story justifies it. Murphy owns the only UFC win over him, Pico has rebuilt with a first-round finish, and he’s openly saying he fought like an idiot the first time. That’s a rematch with an actual hook, a revenge plot with a clean before-and-after, and fans can follow it without a spreadsheet.
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Compare that to the usual featherweight shuffle where everyone waits on Alexander Volkanovski’s next move and nobody wants to risk their spot. Pico is volunteering for danger. Promotions should reward that, because the alternative is a roster full of guys who turn down fights to protect a number on a website.
If Murphy says no, then fine, give Pico whoever wins Sterling vs. Vallejos and let him earn the long way. Based on everything he said, he’d sign either one before the phone call ends. “If I fight a guy that’s not ranked, it just is what it is,” he said. “I know if I have that mindset, the belt will come sooner than later.”
He’s 2-1 in the UFC with one loss to Murphy. The cleanest way to find out if that mindset holds up is to put Murphy back across from him in 2027.
