Aljamain Sterling still sees championship potential in Aaron Pico despite a big setback in his octagon debut.
Pico was viciously knocked out with a spinning-back elbow in the first round by Lerone Murphy in the co-main event of UFC 319. Sterling, who is set to face Brian Ortega in the co-main event of UFC Shanghai this Saturday, was watching the fight very closely as he hopes to get into title contention at 145 pounds.
“Yeah, the thing with Lerone Murphy, no one really knew who he was – now they do,” Sterling told MMA Fighting. “Kudos to him, man. That was a great comeback knockout because he was on his way to possibly getting finished in that first round, or maybe even the second, just the way things were going. But Pico, once again, that aggression, that aggressive style, it comes back to bite you sometimes, especially with a guy who does tricky stuff.
“Lerone Murphy is not super flashy. He’ll throw a spinning back kick, he has some nice elbows, but he’s very fundamentally sound. He’s not doing anything out of the ordinary, but you give him what he wants and you get an opportunity to get a finish like that, and he’s a smart, intelligent fighter. But you got Pico, heavy hands, great wrestler, doesn’t really control people, but will wrestle you if he needs to, can take you down pretty much anytime that he really wants, and then he looks for those big body shots, but when he does that, he car crashes.
“And when you run into a shot, I mean, I know first-hand, I ran into a knee that was meant for a head kick. So I got knocked out by Marlon Moraes by just shooting in and diving in on something, the same thing he once [did before], crashed in and the same thing he did in Bellator. I don’t know. It’s a crazy game, man. One day you’re like this, one moment you’re like this, and then next thing you know, one second later the whole fight just changes right before your eyes. So kudos to Lerone Murphy. I do think he should get the next title shot. It sucks for Movsar because Movsar should have been the guy, but he missed his opportunity to stake his claim, and here we are.”
Pico has been stopped in all five of his losses, and the 28-year-old has been badly knocked out in three of his 18 pro fights. The longtime Bellator prospect parted ways with the PFL in lieu of a UFC signing, which garnered a lot of attention.
Throughout Pico’s Bellator-PFL run, he’s delivered some incredible performances and highlight-reel finishes, but hasn’t faced high-level competition — and nowhere near to the level of competitive experience as Murphy. Despite looking good in the fight early, Pico’s inexperience came into play, which led to the Knockout of the Year contending finish.
Sterling offered up advice to Pico after losing his octagon debut.
“I think that’s it, simply perspective,” Sterling said. “He’s been knocked out like that before running into a shot, and he built himself back up. I think he has to keep it in perspective and at the end of the day, it was just a fight IQ error. You take that away, he probably wins that fight the way that it was going.
“I mean, it was only three minutes into the first round, but still, that showed a lot for the indication of how good he actually is. So I think you’ve got to look at a glass half full, yeah, I might have got sent to the gulags, but at the same time I was actually doing really well against an undefeated, highly touted guy who could potentially fight for a world title.”