It is coming up on one year for Aaron Pico. To fight so close to his hometown, in front of so many family and friends, only for his body, a vessel he tolls hours daily designing it for maximum speed, power and utter destruction, to betray him in that moment.
And for Pico to ignore the pain and will his left shoulder, clearly disengaged from the socket after a grappling exchange as his MMA coach tried valiantly to pop it back in between rounds, to obey and implore the referee he was still fit to fight … to no avail.
With his shoulder repaired and tested, and with a victory already under his belt, Pico prepares for his toughest fight to date when he hopes to celebrate his 27th birthday Saturday with a victory over Dublin featherweight Pedro Carvalho on Saturday in the Bellator 199 co-main event in Ireland.
“My shoulder feels the strongest it’s ever been. Everybody asks me about it. I said I wish that I was able to get it on my right shoulder because it feels so stable,” said the Whittier native, who now lives in Albuquerque and trains at Jackson Wink MMA Academy. “I had MRIs done on my right shoulder just for peace of mind … and my right shoulder looks amazing.”
As for the surgery itself, don’t ask Pico for specifics. To the untrained eye, it sure looked like a dislocation after he emerged from a tenuous first round on the mat with Jeremy Kennedy at Bellator 286 on Oct. 1 at the Long Beach Arena.
But Pico, who admits it sounds bad, wasn’t sweating the details. “He used these doctor’s terms, which went through one ear and out the other because I don’t understand,” he confessed.
So while the former St. John Bosco wrestling star might have a new look, with a beard and his hair no longer tightly cropped, it’s the same old Pico – laser-focused on what’s next and how soon he could get back in the cage in his pursuit of becoming the 145-pound champion.
“I just think I asked him, ‘What, I’m gonna have to have surgery?’ Yes. ‘So when will I be able to fight again?’ He said about four months,” Pico recalled. “I said, ‘When’s the surgery?’ He said in about two weeks because there was numbness in my fingers, so that had to go away. It went away, then I had the surgery and then I fought four months later. It’s kind of crazy.”
It’s as simple as that. You hurt me? I’ll fix it, I’ll come back, I’ll find you and I’ll hurt you. And Pico (11-4) wouldn’t mind exacting some revenge. For his last fight, Pico was gunning for three former opponents with whom he has scores to settle.
According to Pico, Henry Corrales, who recorded a stunning come-from-behind knockout of Pico in 2019, turned it down. Adam Borics, who defeated Pico by TKO in his next fight just five months later, was recovering from an injury.
And Kennedy, after adding a TKO win over Pico due to the shoulder injury to his résumé, opted to fight and defeat Carvalho by unanimous decision in February as he seeks his own title shot.
Instead, for his comeback fight in April, Pico wasn’t thrilled when he was given debuting Brazilian Otto Rodrigues. When Rodrigues had to back out because of an injury, Pico fought fill-in James Gonzalez, mixing vicious body shots and his elite wrestling for a dominant unanimous decision at Bellator 295 in Honolulu.
“I’m happy that I went through the rounds. It was actually a big growth for me because he was just an awkward fighter,” Pico said. “And I needed to feel that and just kind of go out three rounds. It was good for my development. I think it helped me a lot.”
Carvalho (13-7) is arguably Pico’s most battle-tested opponent, even if he has lost four of his past six fights.
A Portuguese southpaw who trains in Dublin, Carvalho has been nothing but respectful. He recognizes Pico, who had won six in a row before his loss to Kennedy, is a significantly different fighter than the one who was rushed into his Bellator career and started 4-3.
“I call him a fighter’s fighter. He goes in there to win and to fight. He’s not there to hold or wait for the time to pass, he is there to hurt you and finish you,” Carvalho said during a media session Thursday. “We never know what’s going to happen in a fight. We can imagine it in a million ways, and it happens in one way we don’t picture it. He fights in a very aggressive way. For sure I’m going to have to handle his shots. I prefer to have him throwing at me and to hurt me.
“Fighting Pico, I must be aware of his explosiveness. His danger makes me alert.”
Niceties aside, while they are appreciated and Pico says Carvalho sounds like a great guy, it doesn’t change his intentions.
“I know it sounds very harsh but … I don’t really have anything good things to say other than on Saturday night I’m gonna really hurt him,” Pico said.
Bellator 299
When: Saturday
Where: 3Arena, Dublin, Ireland
How to watch: prelims (8 a.m., Bellator MMA YouTube); main card (1 p.m., Showtime)
