Aaron Pico was all-in on Diego Lopes… until UFC 314 changed his mind – ‘Very sloppy’

Top-ranked Diego Lopes came up short in his bid for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight title, losing a competitive fight to now two-time Featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski this past weekend at UFC 314, held inside the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida (watch highlights).

For the most part, Lopes was praised for his high-stakes performance. He had “The Great” in trouble at times—dropping him in the second and then hurting him in the fourth round—and remained a threat throughout the fight.

However, new UFC signee Aaron Pico wasn’t as impressed as others. In fact, he felt Lopes was sloppy despite showing toughness.

“I think I think now that the fight is over with, he just showed that he’s very, very tough. He has a great chin,” Pico told Submission Radio recently. “But I didn’t- I’ll just be very blunt. I think he looked very sloppy, and yeah, I don’t think it was his best performance, but what I took away from it, he’s got a, you know, granite of a chin, and he just keeps coming forward.”

For what it’s worth, Pico thought Lopes was going to win the UFC 314 main event.

“I mean, [Volkanovski] proved me wrong, to be honest with you. I was saying before the fight I thought Diego Lopes was was going to win,” Pico said. “Alexander Volkanovski is not not old. But in comparing, you know, MMA years, I mean, he’s getting on the older side, but he just proved that age is just a number, and he’s getting better. So, on the flip side, I got to see him live and study him as best as I can. And he’s a very good fighter. And I look to fight him one day, and it would be an honor.”

The former Bellator standout is currently working on getting his UFC debut booked for later this year (and no, it won’t be against Movsar Evloev).