Movsar Evloev’s next fight will be against former Bellator star Aaron Pico, who will be making his promotional debut at the UFC Fight Night 256 event on May 17th at the Apex in Las Vegas.
This is a surprising announcement in many respects, not least for the 31-year-old Evloev, who may well have expected to be heading into a No.1 contender fight next given that he’s undefeated in his 19-fight career to date, including a nine-fight winning streak in the UFC that includes victories over Diego Lopes, Arnold Allen and Aljamain Sterling in his last three appearances.
With that in mind it must be tough for Evloev to see one of those fighters he beat, Diego Lopes, now fighting for the vacant 145lb title this coming Saturday night in Miami, while he is left fighting a newcomer at the Apex.
That being said, this is no ordinary newcomer as the 28-year-old Pico had been one of the most exciting fighters on the Bellator roster for a long time.
As a highly decorated amateur wrestler who competed in the Olympic team trials back in 2016, there had been a lot of hype around Pico from early on his MMA career, bolstered by the fact that he proved to be something of a knockout machine in the Bellator promotion.
After a disappointing debut in 2017 that saw him being submitted, Pico went on to win his next four fights by strikes in the first round. It already looked at that point like Bellator had a star on their hands, but he then suffered a KO and TKO loss in 2019 that led to some doubts about have far he could go.
However, Pico has gone on to win 9 of his 10 fights in the promotion since then, and continued to demonstrate an impressive finishing rate along the way, with his 13-4 career record now including 9 wins via strikes and two by submission.
So Pico is certainly a very welcome addition to the UFC roster and could become a fan favorite, and with that in mind putting him up against the undefeated, decision-heavy Evloev on a small-time card at the Apex seems like a peculiar bit of matchmaking.
Evloev vs. Pico joins a UFC Fight Night 256 card that doesn’t currently have a headlining fight, but will also include the likes of Paul Craig vs. Rodolfo Bellato, Tecia Pennington vs. Luana Pinheiro and Nursulton Ruziboev vs. Dustin Stoltzfus.
