Crazy Bob: This is the best MMA prospect ever
MMA has seen some extraordinary prospects, perhaps most notably Brock Lesnar. However, Dave Meltzer writing for MMA Fighting profiles an individual…
MMA has seen some extraordinary prospects, perhaps most notably Brock Lesnar. However, Dave Meltzer writing for MMA Fighting profiles an individual that AKA’s ‘Crazy’ Bob Cook has named the greatest prospect he ever saw.
“This is someone in a different world,” said Cook.
He is a high school sophmore who doesn’t plan on starting MMA until 2020, but has already signed an a management contract with DeWayne Zinkin, of Zinkin Entertainment.
His name is Aaron Pico.
Pico captured the FILA Cadet world championship in freestyle wrestling this past year in Zrenjanin, Serbia, in the 17-and-under age group. That’s after winning his weight, and capturing the Outstanding Wrestler award in both the junior and cadet nationals. Last year, he won the FILA national championship in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, as well as the Junior nationals for USA Wrestling in folkstyle (high school and collegiate style). The year before that, at 132 pounds, he was USA Wrestling’s Cadet (17-and-under) champion in Greco-Roman, freestyle and folkstyle.
“I’m better as a fighter than a wrestler,” said Pico.
Pico started wrestling at four, following his older brother in to the sport. He was boxing at ten. He was training mixed styles since 13, competing in Pankration tournaments.
As a boxer, when he was 12, he captured not only the PAL national championship in his age group in that sport, as well as the Upstanding Boxer award, but followed it up the next year at the Junior Golden Gloves championships. He also won the European Pankration championship in the Ukraine.
In November the high school sophomore defeated Alibeggediz Emeev, the No. 3 Olympic caliber wrestler on the Russian national team in his weight class.
He was 42-0 at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, Calif., winning both the California state and national championships. The closest anyone came to him in a match was losing by ten points, and this was as a freshman. He was considered by many as the best pound-for-pound high school wrestler in the country.
“I’m not going to wrestle in high school or college,” said Pico, who has decided to focus entirely on freestyle wrestling, finishing high school with courses online, and traveling abroad to get the best training possible.
“I did the whole high school season and enjoyed that,” he said. “But freestyle and folkstyle are completely different. In order to compete with the highest level guys, you have to do freestyle. The competition is tougher at the international level. I wish the U.S. would convert to freestyle, and I think if they did, we’d do better as a country on the international level than what we’ve done before.”
His first goal is to win an Olympic gold medal. He’s focused on 2016, when he’ll only be 19, but is going to stay with the sport through the 2020 Olympics.
“As far as MMA goes, I definitely want to be an MMA fighter and a UFC champion one day,” said Pico. “I’m wrestling through 2020. I’ll be 23 years old. That’s still young for MMA.
“To me, a complete fighter is a world champion wrestler and a world champion boxer, that’s a complete fighter,” said Pico. “I was sparring with top level boxers and seeing their speed. We definitely have guys in UFC that were complete wrestlers, but I haven’t seen a complete boxer in MMA and it takes time to develop. I was fortunate because from 10 to 13, all I did was box. I don’t think I’ll lose those skills because I’m going to be constantly boxing. When the time is right to compete, I’ll be ready to go. UFC, boxing, and wrestling, but I’ve go to keep training and staying focused.”