Aaron Pico (Photo/Bellator)Less than a week after his 22nd birthday, Aaron Pico will face former title challenger Leandro Higo at Bellator 206 at SAP Center in San Jose on Saturday, Sept. 29.
Pico, the amateur wrestling phenom turned top MMA prospect, will go up against "his toughest test yet" (to quote CageSidePress.com) in Higo, who has fought for the Bellator featherweight (145-pound) title twice, losing to current champ (and former college mat champ) Darrion Caldwell at Bellator 195 earlier this year ... and an earlier opportunity against then-champ Eduardo Dantas fell through at Bellator 177 when Higo missed weight. That bout went ahead at catchweight.
That said, Higo is not taking Pico lightly ... but expects to come out on top.
In Higo's Instagram message shared by MMAjunkie.com Sunday, the fighter -- shown with his arm raised in victory inside the cage -- wrote, "Going up in weight September 29th vs rising star Aaron Pico. Respect to him, but it'll be my hand raised as the winner, just like in this photo. I'm ready to shock the world and remind you I'm here to be a champion ..."
Pico signed with Bellator in November 2014 as an 18-year-old while he was still focused on wrestling. The Los Angeles area native had earned numerous national and international freestyle wrestling titles, but decided to forego a collegiate career.
Pico's pro MMA career got off to a rough start. The former Golden Gloves amateur boxing champ was submitted by Zach Freeman in the first 24 seconds of their fight at Bellator 180 in June 2017. However, since then, Pico has won his three fights by first-round KO or TKO.
Higo is 18-4 overall, and 1-3 in Bellator competition.
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