Aaron Pico would love the gift of a rematch this holiday season, but he’s not getting his hopes up that Santa will come through.
Pico (12-4 MMA, 12-4 BMMA) had a six-fight winning streak snapped in 2022 when a shoulder injury at Bellator 286 led to a TKO after the first round against Jeremy Kennedy (19-3 MMA, 4-1 BMMA). Because of that unique circumstance, Pico wants to run it back – and says Kennedy is being elusive about it.
“I want to make something clear: I’ve asked to fight Kennedy so many times,” Pico recently told MMA Junkie Radio. “Him and I have the same manager, Ali (Abdelaziz). … I’ve asked: ‘I want to fight a rematch with Kennedy. That wasn’t a clean win.’ I’ve said it time and time again. But you know who doesn’t want that fight is Kennedy. He doesn’t want that.”
Pico, a standout high school wrestler who skipped the college wrestling scene to move straight into MMA, dislocated his shoulder at Bellator 286, and though he was willing to fight with it into the second round, the bout was called off.
Pico said then-Bellator president Scott Coker said the nature of the loss wouldn’t be counted against him.
“That night when I was in the hospital, I got a call from Scott Coker. He said, ‘Hey, that win didn’t count for Kennedy. I don’t even count that. You were worried. You wanted to fight. But I want to run that fight back ASAP.’ I said, ‘You got it, boss. I want that fight as bad as you do.'”
Instead, once he was recovered, Pico said he started hearing no.
“I had the surgery. I’m calling for the fight, asking Ali: ‘No, no, no. You have to fight (James Gonzalez).’ OK. I fight him. I win. I said, ‘OK, I want to fight Kennedy.’
‘Now you’ve got to fight Pedro Carvalho.’ I beat Pedro Carvalho. I said, ‘OK, I’m ready to fight Kennedy.’ Now Kennedy is going to fight for the championship, so I really don’t know what’s going on. Then the rankings come out. I’m above Kennedy, so explain that to me.”
Pico implied Kennedy’s own win over Carvalho 10 months ago in Dublin had him in line to fight champion Patricio Freire, which would explain not jumping at the chance to fight Pico again – and possibly lose and fall out of the immediate title race.
But regardless, Pico said he recognizes he’s in the prime time to be busy in the sport.
“I haven’t really heard anything for PFL, just in Bellator,” he said. “I believe I should fight for the title, and just because you believe it doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily going to happen. But I can say I’m not sitting at my house whining or complaining. I’m in the gym getting better. I’m getting better in my personal life, I’m getting better in the gym, I’m spending time with my son – so in all aspects of my life, I’m trying to enhance myself so when that time does come and they say you’re going to fight, for example, in March, I’m ready to go, and against anybody, and we’ll be ready.”
