Aaron Pico is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Despite fulfilling the term of his contract with the PFL, the 28-year-old featherweight contender is still sitting in limbo due to a matching period that the promotion maintains. That means if Pico ultimately reaches a deal with the UFC — the option he’s publicly stated he wants most — the PFL could match the offer and he would be forced to return to fight there instead.
PFL co-founder Donn Davis made it clear that the organization is just living up to the word of the contract that Pico signed but UFC legend Matt Brown believes abiding by that deal is doing far more harm than good in the court of public opinion.
“F*ck that,” Brown said about PFL refusing to let Pico go during the latest episode of The Fighter vs. the Writer. “He’s grown above the PFL and they should recognize that and know that and be cool [about it]. If they want to get more new stars coming up and sign those guys, they have to let him go. It’s going to be in the news, and the next guy’s going to be like ‘I’m not signing with PFL.’
“Everybody wants to get to the f*cking UFC and that’s all there is to it. You’re not going to be No. 2 or a close No. 2 or something. No. Everybody is No. 2. You’re all equally No. 2. You’re all below. So just accept it, and let the f*cking kid go.”
If PFL opts to maintain those matching rights, Pico revealed he would have to sit out for another year before he would finally be free and clear to sign with any promotion as an unrestricted free agent.
Pico has already been out of action for a year with his most recent appearance coming back in February 2024 and another year of inactivity would obviously cut into the prime of his career.
Perhaps the toughest pill for Pico to swallow is knowing that the UFC has made it known publicly that the promotion wants to sign him to a deal. Just this past weekend at UFC Seattle, UFC CEO Dana White pointed to one of his matchmakers and said “that guy loves Aaron Pico … when these guys love you as much as they do, I think good things are probably going to happen.”
“I don’t want to see Aaron Pico sit out a year,” Brown said. “I want to see him in the UFC. You want to see him in the UFC. He should have been in the UFC a long time ago, as a matter of fact. I want to see what his f*cking potential is. He’s got a pretty short window, maybe the next five or six years is going to be his window and let’s see it. I want to see it.
“I don’t know what the PFL is doing. Maybe they just want to hold him until they go bankrupt. You’re going to have him anyway. I don’t know what they’re doing. PFL, nothing really sounds with what’s coming out of that organization the past year or so. Not too exciting.”
To be clear, Brown admits that the PFL’s long term success is actually a good thing for the sport because it creates competition and the UFC sorely needs that.
Unfortunately, the knockout king of the welterweight division just doesn’t see PFL making the right moves for long term sustainability, especially while constantly battling with athletes such as Pico who don’t want to fight there any longer.
“I’d like to see them do well. That’s what sucks,” Brown said about the PFL. “I’d like to see them do well. We need another organization to have some sort of competition. I think it would be a good thing. Competition’s always healthy but what are we going to have? F*cking GFL? It’s ridiculous.
“UFC’s just going to keep growing and keep pulling away from all the competitors. PFL needs to do all the right things to have a chance. You have to make all the right moves. You can’t be making stupid mistakes like this and take these [public relation] hits.”
Of course, Brown has his doubts that the PFL is going to stick around and actually challenge the UFC in any substantive way.
Despite Davis previously calling the PFL the “co-leader” in the MMA world, Brown knows there’s a giant mountain to climb to get anywhere close to the UFC and no organization has shown the ability to get there yet.
“We’ll see, there’s just not a lot of options out there,” Brown said. “PFL saying they’re [a co-leader] is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. We’ll see if they even stick around for another couple of years. There’s just not much out there right now. Let Pico go and let’s move on … let him go. Pretty simple.”
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio
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