Can Aaron Pico Break the PFL to UFC Curse?
If you’ve been watching the UFC for any period, you have probably heard of its curses. There are nearly an uncountable number of fan-speculated curses to explain why fan-favorite fighters are losing. The Cover Curse implies that the fighter placed on the cover of the newest UFC game is set to lose their next fight in the octagon. The Drake Curse: any money placed on a fighter by the rapper Drake results in said fighter experiencing a horrific loss. There is even a curse that states if a fighter gets a haircut on the popular ESPN show, UFC Embedded, they lose their upcoming match. For those hearing of these for the first time, it would be normal to brush these off as speculation and coincidence, but avid watchers have seen time and time again how much these “curses” come to fruition.
That leads us to the latest curse to come from the UFC, the PFL curse. Since the inception of the PFL, each prominent fighter to leave its ranks and join the UFC has had a less-than-desirable debut. Patchy Mix fought Mario Bautista to a prominent decision loss that most fans never anticipated. Patrício Pitbull fought Yair Rodriguez to a lackluster decision loss and only furthered the disdain of the fans by netting an unimpressive victory over fan favorite Dan Ige. It appears PFL fighters cannot catch a break as of late, and their recent run in the UFC more than proves it, but what about Aaron Pico?
Pico has long been thought of as the best of the fighters from the PFL crop. His style is crafty; wrestling comes as easily to him as walking, and lightning seems to pour from his knuckles whenever contact with them arrives. Pico was a dominant champion in the PFL, and analysts are saying that his style may translate best to the higher competition held in the UFC. At twenty-eight years old, Pico is still young and has much time to improve his already dominant techniques. The looming fear of a curse is no doubt a point of pressure for the young prospect, but as we saw at UFC 314, Alexander Volkanovski not only regained his title, but broke the title curse of thirty-five-year-olds in the lighter weight classes. Breaking curses is challenging, but not impossible. Can Pico exorcise his curses, or is he doomed to repeat the errors of his PFL classmates? We will find out this weekend at UFC 319.
