UFC 319 set to decide who dethrones Alexander Volkanovski, says former double champion

Aaron Pico, the former Bellator standout, was originally scheduled to make his UFC debut against Movsar Evloev at the Fight Night event in Abu Dhabi on July 26. But an injury forced the Russian out of that bout.

The UFC quickly found a replacement opponent for Pico, who will now face Lerone Murphy at UFC 319, keeping him matched up with another undefeated featherweight for his first Octagon appearance.

Some have viewed Evloev’s injury as an opportunity for the promotion to address concerns over his exclusion from a title shot against Volkanovski.

Cejudo, though, believes that whoever wins in Chicago will not just jump ahead of Evloev in line – they will also go on to take the belt from Volkanovski.

“The winner of this fight is gonna fight Alexander Volkanovski, and I also feel the winner of this fight is gonna become our next champion,” Cejudo said on his Pound 4 Pound podcast alongside Kamaru Usman.

“All due respect to Volk, but dude, these young guns. Lerone Murphy is fighting Aaron Pico. Aaron Pico is in his f— prime, bro. Power, wrestling; he has been a manchild since he was a kid, already competing at the highest levels while in high school, beating world champions.

“And then Lerone Murphy, what he has been able to do to a lot of these fighters, man,” Cejudo continued. “Undefeated, very tricky, brings in a lot of wrestling; he’s different; he’s like Merab (Dvalishvili).”

Aaron Pico’s decision to take the UFC 319 fight was met with some scepticism

While Cejudo is backing Pico to earn a title shot with a win over Murphy, not everyone shares his enthusiasm for the matchup.

Speaking on his Weighing In podcast, former Strikeforce champion and UFC contender Josh Thomson questioned why Pico took the fight against Murphy.

“I have no idea why you took this fight. You went from Evloev, who is basically considered to be the number one contender…stylistically, this (Murphy) is a tough fight.”

“I’m not saying that Aaron can’t win this fight. This is a tougher fight for him than the Evloev fight. I wanted to see the Evloev fight because the two of them can wrestle. The boxing favours Pico a little bit.

“That’s the fight that I always wanted to see, so I’m being sour right now,” Thomson added.