Bellator 180 featured a stacked card inside of Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, which saw Ryan Bader and Douglas Lima walk away as the new light heavyweight and welterweight champions respectively.That wasn’t it, though, as Matt Mitrione stunned fans when he knocked out Fedor Emelianenko before the main event of the evening saw Chael Sonnen defeat Wanderlei Silva.

BELLATOR 180

However, a lot of focus also fell on to a debutant who was heading into the event with plenty of hype and promotion behind him, as freestyle wrestler Aaron Pico competed in a lightweight contest against Zach Freeman.

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Pico has been hyped for years now, as he’s won plenty of competitions ranging from wrestling tournaments to boxing and Pankration; so he’s got quite the following and it came as no surprise that Bellator wanted him on the main card right away.

AARON PICO

However, his debut was simply a disaster.

Pico was only 18-year-old when he won numerous championship tournaments and then signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with Nike before the hot prospect was snapped up by Bellator MMA on a long-term deal.

Even his coach claimed Pico is the greatest prospect the sport has ever seen.

It took two years to get to his first fight, and Freeman entered this contest off the back of a loss to Thiago Moises for an RFA title and ensured the hype ended on Saturday night.

Pico moved forward right away but ate a nasty knee and kept coming.

It proved to be a big mistake as he ate a vicious uppercut and was locked into the guillotine with no escape and it proved to be a relatively easy night for Freeman – as you’ll be able to see below.

The 20-year-old was understandably gutted after the loss, especially with so many eyes on him, but was determined to come back from the loss.

Speaking at the post-fight conference, Pico said: “He caught me with that uppercut, it was a nice uppercut by him. Obviously, taking that shot I knew that he was going to try to take me to the ground somehow, he’s strong in his jiu-jitsu.

“I haven’t sat down and watched the whole film, but yeah, he got me with that uppercut and his choke was good. There are things that I need to work on, but like I said, we’ll go to the drawing board with Bob [Cook] and my team and evaluate where we go next and go from here.”

Pico went on to claim that he’ll still be a champion, but now faces an even tougher task to impress those that thought he would steamroll through Freeman.

What did you make of Aaron Pico’s debut? Have YOUR say in the comments section below.

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