A widely reported fight booking between one of the UFC’s leading featherweight contenders Movsar Evloev and newly signed Bellator ace Aaron Pico won’t be happening at UFC FIght Night 256 next month after all.
The match-up had raised a lot of eyebrows when it came to light given that the undefeated Evloev is hovering right on the verge of title contention after racking up an eight-fight winning streak in the Octagon that includes his most recent victories over current title challenger Diego Lopes, Arnold Allen and Aljamain Sterling.
As such, while Pico is a highly regarded talented from Bellator, he’s still untested in the UFC and so it didn’t feel like the right match-up for either fighter at this stage.
And now it’s emerged that the fight has fallen through, with Evloev now waiting to see what happens after the outcome of this weekend’s fight for the vacant featherweight title between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes.
For his part Pico has revealed that it genuinely was the UFC’s intention to make this fight happen, and that as far as he’s aware Evloev was initially on-board with it.
Yeah, it was real,” Pico told MMAJunkie. “I mean, I got a phone call from Ali [Abdelaziz] saying, ‘Hi, can you fight on May 17th?’ And I said, ‘Of course.’ And then I just said, ‘Who am I fighting against?’ He said, ‘Movsar.’ And I said, ‘Of course. That’s a great, that’s a great fight for me. Yeah, I don’t think he knows how good my wrestling is.’ And he said, ‘Okay. Movsar agreed, too.’ So, I don’t know. It was pretty close.”
However, it seems there’s no hard feelings on Pico’s part that the fight isn’t happening as he fully understands Evloev’s position.
“I was a little bit surprised, but ultimately it’s not happening,” Pico said. “But it was a good sign that they were entertaining the idea of (me) fighting a guy so highly ranked. For him, it was kind of hard because he’s No. 4, and I’m just coming in.
“I can understand why he probably got advised not to ultimately take it, but he did say yes. I’m sure he got in with his team, and they said, ‘What are you doing? Just wait.’ So, nothing but respect.”
