When Aaron Pico made his MMA debut at the age of twenty, he was termed “maybe the greatest prospect in the history of MMA” by then-Bellator President Scott Coker (for reasons we will discuss in depth later). Alas, his MMA debut poured cold water on those prospects as he was submitted by Zach Freeman in the first round of their Bellator: NYC clash in June 2017. And just like that, Pico went from ‘the greatest prospect’ to ‘over-hyped’. But that wasn’t the end for the 145fer as it has been for so many promising prospects. He did what people with a championship mindset do and grew through adversity.
The Californian has come into his own recently, and hasn’t been beaten by another opponent (except one freak injury loss) in the past five years, during which he has fought ten times. And now, with the PFL bungling its management of Bellator since acquiring it in 2023, Pico, like many big Bellator stars, has joined the UFC. And the former Olympic hopeful feels his wrestling is good enough to beat anybody in the promotion, even the Dagestanis, with whom he has a lot of first-hand experience.
“The reason why, like I’m not like, you know– Dagestan has incredible wrestlers, like, I mean the highest highest level. But what a lot of fans and people don’t know about me, ‘cuz they just don’t know, is that I spent a lot of time in Dagestan wrestling from like 16 to like 19. I was in Makhachkala, Khasvyrut, Ossetia, which is, it’s still in the Caucasus mountains… but yeah, I wrestled a lot there so I got to see the highest level,” Pico told Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo on their ‘Pound 4 Pound’ podcast.
This experience in Dagestan, of course, was crucial in the Californian becoming a world championship-level wrestler and has helped him succeed in MMA. Moreover, the former Bellator superstar made some eyebrow-raising claims about perhaps the two greatest MMA wrestlers of all time, to make the point about just how good the wrestling scene is in the remote Russian region.
“I mean, Islam and Khabib are great wrestlers, like they really are, like, you know, MMA wrestling. But where they come from, people don’t realize where they come from; they’re not at the highest level at all. Like, I’m talking like the Abdul Rashids, the [Abdulsalam] Gadisovs, the best wrestlers. Like they’re not even in the top maybe top 30 and top 50, like, where they come from in Dagestan and in the Caucasus Mountains,” he added.
This claim may look a bit too much to some at first glance, but Pico’s claim does hold up given everything we know about the Russian province. First of all, both Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov competed in Combat Sambo before transitioning to MMA, and weren’t really proper wrestlers. Of course, wrestling is one very important part of Combat Sambo, and the duo are former champions in that sport.
MMA: UFC 280-Oliveira vs Makhachev Oct 22, 2022 Abu Dhabi, UAE Islam Makhachev blue gloves defeats Charles Oliveira red gloves during UFC 280 at Etihad Arena. Abu Dhabi UAE, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xCraigxKidwellx 20221022_jla_ooo_489
But are they better than the Olympics and world championship level Dagestanis wrestlers? Probably not. And since the remote Russian region is a hot spot for such wrestlers, you could likely find thirty or even fifty Dagestani wrestlers better than ‘The Eagle’ and his UFC successor, as Pico claimed.
How did Aaron Pico regain the respect of the MMA community?
It is easy to see why Aaron Pico was so highly rated before his MMA debut. The Californian’s potential was clear for everyone to see back when he was just a teenager. He won the California inter-school wrestling tournament for his Don Bosco High School, was an under seventeen wrestling world champion, medalled at the under-20 world championship, and has a handful of medals (including two golds) at half a dozen Grand Prix.
Moreover, he had the endorsement of MMA manager extraordinaire Bob Cook, the man responsible for discovering Daniel Cormier. In fact, Cook had told former Bellator boss Scott Coker that he felt Pico was in the same class as ‘DC’ and Cain Velasquez, perhaps even better than these MMA titans.
But all of that came crashing down after his ill-fated MMA debut. But class, as they say, is permanent. And the Californian was able to rally back strongly. Although he lost a couple more fights in the next couple of years. Both by second-round KO, but he rallied back strongly and today looks like the unstoppable force of nature he was hyped up to be. Will he continue to impress in the UFC too? We’ll have to wait for his debut to find out. What do you think about Aaron Pico’s thoughts about Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov’s wrestling skills?
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