T.J. Dillashaw still sees championship potential in Aaron Pico, but urges him to change his offensive approach.<\/p>\n
Pico (13-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC) was knocked out by Lerone Murphy<\/a> (17-0-1 MMA, 9-0-1 UFC) courtesy of a spinning back elbow in Round 1 of this past Saturday’s UFC 319 co-headliner at United Center in Chicago.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Two-time UFC bantamweight champion Dillashaw has been training with Pico for a while now, and broke down what he thinks the 28-year-old did wrong.<\/p>\n “The first time I ever trained with Aaron Pico was when I moved back down here and started training with Sam Calavitta, and from Day One, I was like, ‘This kid could be a champion,'” Dillashaw said on the JAXXON Podcast<\/a>. “He is so good because he’s an insanely good wrestler and his boxing is just awesome. He drops bombs. He’s got an awesome liver shot.<\/p>\n “He looked really good in this fight. But again, I’m going to go back to (feints). Pico was putting things together. His technique was great and his pressure was awesome, but he’s just moving forward without any feints. He’s not making Murphy guess on what he’s throwing. Pico has now been knocked out a few times and he gets caught with another \u2013\u00a0back-to-back, spinning back elbow. He walks right into it.”<\/p>\n Pico looked good before getting caught, landing big shots on Murphy and a couple of takedowns. Dillashaw would like to see him exercise more patience and implement a more cautious attack.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n “Aaron Pico is by far the hardest-working athlete I’ve ever worked out with,” Dillashaw said. “Like, I work hard. This guy, it’s insane how hard he works with Sam Calavitta at the gym. He puts everything into this thing. I’m very sad for him because he’s a very talented guy. He’s been knocked out a few times now, which is worrisome \u2013 pretty heavy knockouts. It’s just some small things he could do a little bit better. He’s so tense when he’s fighting. He’s got this tunnel vision that he’s looking for knockouts constantly.”<\/p>\n Despite the concerns, Dillashaw is not ready to write off his training partner just yet.<\/p>\n “Aaron Pico has everything there is to be a champion \u2013 it’s just some small tweaks and changes that he can make. I hope he bounces back from this because I love the guy. He’s an amazing human being. He works his ass off. He’s very talented. Total bummer to have this happen.”<\/p>\n