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Pico loses his UFC debut by brutal KO
Published
Modified
In Chicago, an exquisitely timed, perfectly placed spinning back elbow brought an abrupt end to Aaron Pico’s UFC debut Saturday night.
Pico, who trains in Albuquerque at Jackson-Wink MMA, suffered a brutal first-round knockout at the hands of England’s Lerone Murphy in the co-main event of UFC 319 at the United Center.
When the end came, Pico (13-5) was advancing when Murphy (17-0-1) whirled and threw an elbow that landed between the forehead and the right temple — sending Pico, as mmafighting.com’s Damon Martin wrote on X, “into the shadow realm.”
That suddenly, barely three minutes into the first round, the fight was over.
UFC President Dana White said during a post-event news conference that Pico was transported to a hospital and likely had suffered a concussion.
Pico, a California native who’d spent the first six years of his MMA career with Bellator, had hoped to use Saturday’s fight as a springboard to a possible UFC featherweight title shot against champion Alexander Volkanovski.
Instead, it’s possible that Murphy will be next in line for a title shot.
