Aaron Pico: 'I just need to fight whoever' as Losene Keita replaces Arnold Allen at UFC 333
The 30-year-old featherweight accepted the unranked replacement straight away and said he would be ready if anything happened in Alexander Volkanovski's title defence on Saturday.
Aaron Pico has said he had no problem facing Losene Keita at UFC 333 after Arnold Allen was taken out of their featherweight fight. Pico had been matched with Allen, a perennial top-10 fighter, but the bout had barely been put together before Allen was replaced by Keita, who recently scored his first UFC win. Pico accepted the new opponent immediately.
"I just roll with the punches," Pico told MMA Fighting. He said he thought he was ranked around 12th but was not sure, and that being champion is all he is focused on. "So whoever I have to fight," he said.
"A lot of guys are like, 'I need to protect this, I need to fight a guy that's above me.' I have a different approach," Pico said. "If I'm not champion, then I just need to fight whoever. Even when you are champion, you're fighting the best guys in the world. It doesn't really matter to me. I'm focused on getting to the top. I'm taking this as a new challenge."
The 30-year-old said facing whoever is put in front of him now is preparation for title defences against the best in the world. "We know what our playbook is. We know what we need to do and we just need the reps," he said. "I need to make the walk as much as I possibly can to get to the top."
Pico said he was not taking Keita lightly. "Every fight is dangerous," he said. "I don't care if you're fighting a guy off the street that has no experience. There's always a puncher's chance. I take every fight serious." Having lost before, he said, he knows how much one bad decision in the cage can cost.
Alexander Volkanovski defends the featherweight title against Movsar Evloev in the main event on Saturday. Pico, the former Bellator fighter, called Volkanovski the best featherweight of all time and said being on the same card was an honour. "Of course, if anything happens in the main event, I'll be there," Pico said. "I would love to fight for the title, but I'm just solely focused on this guy."
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