Aaron Pico felt the weight of his entire UFC future riding on his performance against Patricio Pitbull at UFC 327, and he was not keeping that pressure to himself.
Speaking with MMA Fighting, Pico was candid about the mental reality of walking into only his second UFC fight already feeling like a must-win situation after a brutal knockout loss in his debut against Lerone Murphy, who ended the fight with a spinning back elbow just over three minutes in.
"For sure, it was a must win. My job was on the line. That's the way I felt," Pico said. "It's a scary thought knowing that hey, if you drop this match, you may be cut. You never know. That was never said to me, so I was just speculating. Maybe I didn't need to do that, but yeah, I needed to win. That's just bottom line."
He pointed to the cautionary example of Patchy Mix, a fellow Bellator veteran who joined the UFC with significant fanfare and was released after going 0-2. Pico recognized that hype has no protective value in a results-driven organization.
"Nobody is special. You can be cut at any time. I don't take it for granted. I don't feel special in any way."
Pico also identified what went wrong in the Murphy fight and what he changed against Pitbull. He described his debut approach as unnecessarily reckless, acknowledging that his aggressive style looked dominant right up until it got him knocked out.
"The first two minutes was crazy. If I would have just taken a step back, used my footwork, took him down again, held him down, eventually he would have gone out. But everything happens for a reason. I had to really assess my game."
Against Pitbull, Pico was more patient and tactically disciplined while still delivering the entertainment he is known for. The result was a shutout victory and his first top 15 ranking from the UFC.
He also described a mental reset he gave himself walking into the arena for the Pitbull fight, drawing on the Murphy experience as a reference point rather than a source of fear.
"The worst thing has happened to me in the UFC. I was on one of the biggest cards of the year, got knocked out in front of probably millions of people watching. So next time, when you step into that cage in a few hours, just let it flow. Exactly how you sparred, do it in the cage and enjoy it."
