Aaron Pico and his team did their best to address a serious injury in the middle of his fight at Bellator 286.
Pico injured his shoulder in a flurry if strikes during the round against Jeremy Kennedy. Pico tried to pin Kennedy to his shoulder, making the injury even worse.
@AaronPicoUSA trying to pop his arm back in before being taken down. #Bellator286 is LIVE on @SHOsports. pic.twitter.com/frUtTeHmT1
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) October 2, 2022
Kennedy took control of the fight from that point, and threatened Pico with a back-naked choke. But Pico survived to make it to round. From there, the situation only became more intense as Pico’s coach Brandon Gibson worked to reset the shoulder between rounds. It wasn’t clear whether Gibson was successful, and referee Blake Grice called for the ringside physician to examine the injury.
According to the commentary team, the doctor said that Pico had “a broken clavicle.”
Pico tried to move his arm by showing mobility and said to the doctor “Let’s fight.” This is how I feed my family.” But he could not fully raise his arm, and the decision was made to wave off the bout before the start of Round 2.
The loss ends a six-fight winning streak for Pico (10-4), while Kennedy (18-3, 1 NC) improves to 3-1 inside the Bellator cage with his second straight win.
