Patricio Pitbull and Aaron Pico were two of the faces of the now-defunct Bellator MMA brand for years yet a matchup between the featherweight talents never materialized.
The skilled 145-pounders both signed with the UFC in 2025, and they headlined the preliminary card at UFC 327 on Saturday night in Miami with Pico getting his hand raised.
Pico, 29, was flattened in his UFC debut by Lerone Murphy last summer, and the former blue-chip prospect took some time to recover and learn from the knockout loss before returning to the gym.
“I’m not going to lie, after the last loss, I took it a little bit hard. I was really embarrassed and had some down days,” Pico said earlier this week at UFC 327 media day. “I don’t like to say this, but in a way I’m kinda happy it happened because I really had to take a good look in the mirror and obsess over my game.”
Pico is 13-4 since his MMA debut in 2017, with all of those losses being via knockout, so his durability has often been questioned by his opponents throughout his career.
“Maybe I do have a glass chin, but he’s not going to hit me, so it’s all good,” Pico said of his matchup with Pitbull.
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Pico looked sharp at the Kaseya Center across the cage from a former two-weight Bellator champion, landing more than double the amount of strikes as Pitbull, and he was successful on six of 13 takedown attempts.
“I had to really work on a few things,” Pico said of his loss to Murphy. “Fight IQ, movement, footwork, just all-around things, and I did that. I’ve been training the last three months and working on a new style and different things, and I’m excited to show it.”
Those improvements were on display, and with the exception of one judge awarding Pitbull one round, Pico had a perfect outing.
The credentialed American wrestler spent time training with UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev and No. 1 UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan — two of the most dominant grapplers in mixed martial arts — in preparation for UFC 327, so it’s no surprise his conditioning was on point as well. Pico also trained with Canadian Jeremy Kennedy, who happens to be a former opponent of both Pico and Pitbull.
Brazil's Pitbull entered the weekend as the No. 13 contender at featherweight, which means Pico can expect to have a number beside his name come next week once the organization’s official fighter rankings are updated.
In earlier action, Mateusz Gamrot picked up the first proper submission victory of his UFC career thanks to his arm-triangle choke of Esteban Ribovics in a featured lightweight contest. Gamrot technically submitted Diego Ferreira in 2021 via submission due to strikes; however, against Ribovics, he did it with purely grappling.
The 35-year-old from Poland, who holds notable past victories over Arman Tsarukyan, Rafael dos Anjos and Jalin Turner, said after his win over Ribovics that he’d be open to welcoming two-time featherweight title challenger Diego Lopes to the lightweight division. Lopes has hinted recently that he is considering making the move up from 145 pounds to 155 pounds.
Also on the prelims, Kevin Holland swept the scorecards against fellow experienced welterweight Randy Brown.
Vicente Luque ranks tied fifth all-time in UFC welterweight appearances, fourth in victories at 170 pounds and ranks second place in knockouts, submissions and total stoppage wins in the division. The Brazilian decided this year to move up to 185 pounds, and he earned a first-round submission over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 327.
Luque said he feels great training and competing as a middleweight and added afterwards that he is done putting his body through the drastic weight cuts to get down to the welterweight limit. The 34-year-old went 0-2 in 2025 but got back into the win column by becoming the fourth fighter to submit Gastelum, joining Sean Brady, Jack Hermansson and former champion Chris Weidman.
Tatiana Suarez overcame some early adversity against Mexican-Canadian Loopy Godinez and bounced back in the second round to earn a submission win. Godinez rocked Suarez with a series of short punches in the opening minute and controlled much of the round, but Suarez survived and began working her elite wrestling. She got the takedown in the second, secured back control and locked in a rear-naked choke that forced a tap.
Suarez, 35 from California, is 12-1 in MMA with her only loss being a five-round decision in her 2025 title fight with 115-pound great Weili Zhang. Suarez should hold her spot as the No. 2 contender in the strawweight division.
Charles Radtke of the United States handed Argentina’s Francisco Prado his fourth consecutive decision loss in the UFC in the opening bout of the night. Radtke, 35, has won two in a row and three of his past four. Prado, 23, fell to 1-4 in the UFC with all his losses coming via decision. Prado is also now 0-3 since moving up from lightweight to welterweight.
All three judges scored the fight 30-26 in favour of Radtke after Prado was deducted a point early in the final round for a damaging eye poke as the Florida crowd chanted “take a point” at referee Marc Goddard.
The crowd also cheered when MarQuel Mederos was deducted a point during his fight with Chris Padilla for an eye poke. The foul proved costly since the fight ended in a majority draw — although Padilla was initially announced as the winner by majority decision — with two judges scoring the bout 28-28 and the one dissenting judge seeing it 29-27 for Padilla.
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