Aaron Pico will don the wrestling singlet once again as the UFC star will compete under the Real American Freestyle banner against a former PFL kingpin. The former multi-time titleholder inside the PFL smart cage is Lance Palmer, who was also a former Ohio State All-American, and he will wrestle Pico in St. Louis at RAF 10 on June 13th.
Pico was a standout American wrestling prospect before getting into MMA, and he came just a single victory short of representing America in the 2016 Olympics. The former Bellator MMA product looks to gain momentum with consecutive wins in different competitive disciplines after recently securing his first win inside the UFC. Pico did this at UFC 327 against fellow former Bellator MMA alum and multi-division Bellator champ Patricio Pitbull when the former bested the latter via unanimous decision.
This put Aaron Pico back into the win column in a big way after his devastating KO loss in his UFC debut against Lerone Murphy last August. For Pico, he will be making his debut with Real American Freestyle in the Summer. Conversely, Palmer has now had multiple wrestling contests in RAF, including a clash with top UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan in a losing effort to the widely known UFC combatant.
Palmer is also looking to put together back-to-back wins just like Pico is. Palmer scored his first win in Real American Freestyle after previously going on a two-fight skid in the professional wrestling outlet when he notched a W at RAF 8 earlier this month.
Aaron Pico felt his “job was on the line” heading into UFC 327 clash
Aaron Pico now has a .500 record inside the UFC, but there was a sentiment that he had leading into the bout where he felt like he was fighting for his spot on the roster. This was expressed by Pico in a post-fight interview with MMA Fighting, as Pico stated [via MMA Fighting],
“For sure, it was a must [win]. My job was on the line. That’s the way I felt. I try not to think about it too much. Of course, I had my days where it was very difficult for me. Like I always say, I’m human, so you sometimes tend to overthink. Sometimes I think that’s my problem.”
“I need to just live a little bit more and not overthink. But yeah, 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.”