Aaron Pico had a ranked featherweight in front of him at UFC 333 for about as long as it takes to sign a bout agreement. Arnold Allen, a perennial top-10 fighter, withdrew almost as soon as the matchup was made, and the UFC replaced him with Losene Keita, a rising prospect who only recently picked up his first win in the promotion. Pico, speaking to MMA Fighting, said he accepted on the spot.
“I just roll with the punches,” Pico said. “What am I ranked in the UFC? No. 12 or something like that? I’m not even sure. All I’m focused on is being a champion.”
The math on a swap like this usually scares contenders off. Beating Allen would have been a clean step up the ladder for the 30-year-old former Bellator fighter. Beating an unranked newcomer moves the needle far less, and losing to one costs a lot more. Pico told MMA Fighting he understands the instinct other fighters have to guard their spot, and that he rejects it.
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“A lot of guys are like, ‘I need to protect this, I need to fight a guy that’s above me.’ I have a different approach,” he said. “If I’m not champion, then I just need to fight whoever.”
His reasoning runs forward to the title itself. A champion doesn’t get to pick a comfortable opponent for each defense, so Pico sees no point in getting picky now. He framed every fight as practice for that future, saying “we just need the reps” and that he wants to “make the walk as much as I possibly can to get to the top.”
He also wasn’t dismissive of Keita, even with Allen’s résumé sitting so much deeper. Pico pointed to his own history as the reason he takes nobody lightly.
“Every fight is dangerous,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re fighting a guy off the street that has no experience. There’s always a puncher’s chance. I take every fight serious. I’ve lost before, so I know how crucial any one bad decision in the cage can cost you.”
Part of what kept him on the card was the headliner. Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski defends his title against Movsar Evloev in the main event, and Pico called Volkanovski “the best featherweight of all time” and said sharing the card was an honor. He added that he and his father talk about Volkanovski often in training, measuring their work against the level the champion set. Pico also made clear he’d be ready if something went wrong in the main event, though he insisted his attention is on Keita.
My take: this is the right call, and an honest one. A fighter who says he wants the belt and then turns down a willing opponent because the replacement lacks a number next to his name has told you what he really wants, which is a safer path. Pico took the riskier deal without negotiating himself into knots over it. The catch is that the reward is thin. Beat Keita impressively on Saturday, October 24, and he holds his place while the winner of Volkanovski vs. Evloev decides what the division looks like next. Lose, and the guy at No. 12 “or something like that” falls behind a lot of people he’d rather be chasing.
