Greatest combat fighter who ever lived? Bellator's Aaron Pico is planning on it

Aaron Pico

When Bob Cook speaks, Bellator MMA president Scott Coker listens.

Cook, a trainer at American Kickboxing Academy and co-founder with Zinkin Entertainment and Sports Management, has rarely steered Coker wrong. When Coker was president of Strikeforce, Cook recommended the signings of Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold, Josh Thomson and Tarec Saffiedine. Each would go on to become a Strikeforce champion.

So, when Cook got in Coker’s ear and told him he had a prospect in Aaron Pico, who reminded him of Strikeforce alum and current UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, you can bet the young prospect was instantly on Coker’s radar.

The Bellator boss took Cook’s advice and walked away impressed with what he saw in Pico. The only potential hangup was that Pico’s plans did not include becoming a pro MMA fighter until 2016. The reason behind that delay is the 18-year-old is fully focused on competing in – and winning – a gold medal in freestyle wrestling when Rio de Janeiro hosts the 2016 Summer Olympics. That delay proved to be a non-issue for Coker, who signed the Whittier, Calif., resident to a long-term contract in November 2014.

A glance at Pico’s wrestling credentials tells you why Bellator would ink him to a deal more than a year and a half before he plans to fight for the organization. Highlighting Pico’s lengthy resume is a November 2014 win over 2013 World Champion Daniel Safaryan. Earlier in 2014 he finished second at the FILA Junior World Championships. Prior to that, Pico earned national championships at the junior level in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, as well as a world championship at the 2013 Fila Cadet World Championship.

In addition to wrestling, Pico has had success in pankration, capturing the title of 2010 Golden Cup European Champion in that combat sport.

More than a wrestling phenom

Somewhat surprisingly, Pico, who first hit the mats at the age of 4 and started competing in wrestling at a national level at 8, doesn’t feel wrestling is his strongest discipline. Instead, he says he’s a better fighter than a wrestler.

“In wrestling, the problem is that you’re not able to punch,” Pico, the 2009 National Junior Gold Gloves boxing champion, told MMAjunkie.

Coker feels the only thing Pico is missing to make him the complete MMA package is the ground game, and he’s confident Pico will be able to shore up that aspect with a year or two of training.

If history is any indicator, Coker’s theory will prove correct. Even as a young fan of Georges St-Pierre and Floyd Mayweather, Pico was self-aware enough to know what skills he needed to work on for a future MMA career.

“When I was wrestling, there was a gym that I used to go to, and if we wrestled good, we would be able to put on the gloves and go in the cage and fight,” Pico said. “I would take down guys a thousand times, but my boxing was horrible. So I told my dad, ‘Man, I need to learn how to box.’ My neighbor at the time was a muay Thai fighter, and we called him, and said that I wanted to learn how to box. I stopped wrestling for about three years and just focused on boxing, and I did pankration. And then I decided that (MMA) is what I want to do, so at about 9 or 10, I decided that it was what I wanted to do.”

A real-world education

Before the Olympics, and prior to stepping into the Bellator cage, Pico continues to take high school classes while he travels the world preparing for the 2016 Olympic trials. He’s on the fast track to graduate from St. John Bosco, where he went 42-0 as a freshman, taking his classes online so that he will have plenty of time to focus on wrestling ahead of the upcoming Olympics.

For those who feel that Pico may be missing out on the high school experience as he travels, Pico is quick to point out that the route he is taking allows him to experience so much more than those attending the Bellflower, Calif., campus.

“I don’t think I’m missing out on anything,” Pico said. “What I get to do, and the things I get to see around the world, is an education in itself. I wish people could experience the things I’ve experienced, going to Cuba, Spain, Russia, Ukraine – all these places that I’ve been to. These are places that you learn about in school, and I actually get to be there. It’s awesome, and I have fun doing it.”

Pico may do some sightseeing on these trips, but the real reason behind his travel is to improve as a wrestler.

“Their technique is so much better,” Pico said of working with the Cuban and Russian teams. “The way that they do certain moves is just so much more precise. When you wrestle them, everything has to be pretty much perfect or else you’re going to get beat. Working with them is helping me out a lot, and I think it’s going to be great for the future and help me become a world champion and help me to make the Olympic team.”

The man who travels with him, highly respected coach Valentin Kalika, seconds Pico’s sentiments regarding the necessity of overseas training.

“I want Aaron to be exposed to the best wrestling in the world,” he said. “Having good partners is crucial for training, and in Los Angeles, we don’t have that resource especially since we are training freestyle wrestling.”

That type of traveling in order to train is not the norm for a wrestler as young as Pico. Neither is the fact that he will forego a college wrestling career in pursuit of his goals. The minute Pico put pen to paper with Zinkin Entertainment on the last day of 2013, he became ineligible to wrestle in high school or college. To hear Pico tell it, that was all part of the plan.

“I couldn’t see myself wrestling in college,” he said. “I think after four or five years, I would have been too beat up, especially with the way I wrestle and the way I always go forward.”

‘The greatest combat fighter that ever lived’

Pico’s move to sign a management deal with an eye on an MMA career is unprecedented. When asked how the wrestling and MMA communities have reacted to his signing with Zinkin and Bellator, Pico said he has heard mostly positive things – at least from those he has spoken to face to face.

“If they don’t like it, they never say it to my face,” he said. “Whenever I talk to them, they’re pretty positive, but when they aren’t talking to me, it may be different.”

Since meeting Pico, Coker has become one of his biggest supporters. The Bellator boss said that when he sat down to speak to Pico about his future, he was struck by the focus and maturity of the young wrestler.

“He said something to me that really resonated with me,” Coke said. “He said, ‘I already feel like I’m a good boxer, I want to be an Olympic wrestler, and MMA is my passion and my goal. I want to be the greatest combat fighter that ever lived.’ That was what he told me. Not his father or his manager or any kind of sales pitch. It was him talking to me heart to heart, and I could just feel his intensity.”

That intensity, passion and maturity has led Pico to deals with Nike and Dethrone.

“Aaron is mature beyond his years,” Dethrone founder Nick Swinmurn stated. “We were also excited that this was, in part, a traditional sponsorship. This wasn’t just paying a UFC fighter in exchange for visibility on a high-profile UFC card. This was really in large part about being able to help a young man pursue his Olympic and professional dreams. Even if he had decided to live on a remote island in isolation with no media exposure for us at all, we would have offered the same. It’s not often you have a chance to help someone reach their dreams. We wanted to be a part of that.”

With the likes of Bellator, Nike and Dethrone behind him, and a stated goal of being both an Olympic and MMA champion, one would think that Pico would be feeling at least some pressure. He’s not, he said. As he sees it, “People can either fold or they can rise to the occasion. I can rise to the occasion and stay focused and keep training and doing what I’m doing. The only thing I can do is give it 100 percent and give it my all. But, I definitely realize that there’s going to be a lot of eyes on me, but that’s better for me. If people are watching I think I compete better.”

With a well-mapped-out plan in front of him and some lofty goals, Pico can be sure people will be watching.

For more on Bellator’s upcoming schedule, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.