Pico eager to fight tough guys
22-year-old faces Corales in Bellator co-main event
Bellator featherweight Aaron Pico has been tabbed for greatness from the moment he announced his intentions to compete in mixed martial arts. This weekend, he gets a chance to prove the hype is real.
The 22-year-old Pico (4-1 MMA, 4-1 BMMA) meets Henry Corrales (16-3 MMA, 4-3 BMMA) in the co-main event of Saturday’s Bellator 214, which takes place at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The night’s five-fight main card airs on Paramount (9 p.m. ET) and simultaneously streams on DAZN.
The bout with Corrales serves as the highest-profile booking to date in Pico’s 19-month-old professional career, but the fast-rising contender insists he’s unconcerned with the rising stakes.
“I like to have that pressure on me every fight,” Pico told USA TODAY. “It just brings a different type of urgency, a different type of focus. That’s why I’m so adamant about fighting tough guys — because when you fight tough guys, you wake up in the morning with a lot more energy, more inclined to do something.”
In 2016, Pico was one match away from qualifying for the U.S. Olympic wrestling team as a teenager. He’s also a former Junior Golden Gloves champion, giving him an incredible base of skills that drew enough interest from Bellator to sign Pico to a long-term contract three years before he was ready to make his professional debut.
Pico came up short in that first pro fight — a bout that was contested at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden — but has since stormed back with four consecutive victories, all earned via first-round knockout.
Now the man long considered to be a “can’t-miss” prospect is ready to claim contender status. Pico insists he’s ready for the challenge presented by Corrales, who carries his own four-fight winning streak into the contest.
“I’d rather get paid less money to fight a tougher guy,” Pico said. “That’s just my mind-set right now. I’m not worried about anything other than being the best.
“I get through this fight, I feel I’m in a position to be the youngest world champion in Bellator history.”